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Ken Boothe

Had Ken Boothe been born in Birmingham, Alabama or Memphis, Tennessee there is no doubt he would today be heralded as one of the finest Soul singers of all time. Often compared to Otis Redding, he possesses one of the most soulful and distinctive voices in popular music and if there were any justice in this world, his astounding vocal dexterity would have brought him fame and fortune beyond his imaginings. But of course life is not fair and despite creating some of the most timeless music ever to emanate from Jamaica’s golden shores, the financial rewards have been relatively modest.

Born in Denham Town, Kingston on March 22nd 1946, Ken was raised in an atmosphere where music provided an almost constant backdrop to every day daily life. His mother was a keen gospel singer, while his eldest sister, Hyacinth Clover was a well-known vocalist who appeared with popular comedy duo, Bim & Bam. Bearing in mind his background, it was hardly surprising Ken developed a deep love of music from an early age and while still only a small child, he began developing dance routines with another of his sisters, the pair later performing as Jack & Jill at local talent contests. During his formative years, he also began entering singing competitions at his local school, Denham Primary Elementary School, usually facing stern opposition from a certain Winston Delano Stewart, who would later make his name with The Gaylads.

Ken's big break came in the early sixties when he overheard singers Stranger Cole and Roy Panton practising their harmonies while on his way home from school. The following day, the teenager he decided to throw caution to the wind and join their rehearsal, adding his voice to theirs. The duo were suitably impressed by Ken's precocious talent and asked the teenager to perform with them on a regular basis. Ken jumped at the opportunity, although the trio proved short-lived following Panton's decision to record with Millie Small of "My Boy Lollipop" fame.

Undaunted by Panton's departure, Stranger and Ken continued to perform, making their debut as a duo with leading local producer, Arthur 'Duke' Reid, cutting "Mo Sen Wa", around the close of 1962. This, along with subsequent releases, most notably "Uno Dos Tres", "I Want To Go Home" (both for Reid) and "Hush Baby" (produced by Mike Shadeed) brought the pair to the attention of Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, who over the next few months had them record half a dozen or so sides, including "Thick In Your Love", "All Your Friends", "My Marie" and "I'm So In Love".

The popularity of their material for Dodd led to the pair becoming increasingly in demand by local producers and in 1964, Stranger & Ken were asked by Byron Lee to record "What A Day" and "Suzie" for a collection of Jamaican Ska sides issued by the major US record company, Atlantic. Other songs recorded around this time were "Blessed Be" for Richard Khouri's Federal Records and an embryonic version of "Home, Home, Home", entitled "I'll Be Home", which saw issue on Vincent Chin's Randy's label.

Throughout this time, Cole had also regularly recorded both as a solo artist and half of the duo, Stranger & Patsy and perhaps prompted by this, Ken began performing with another local singer, Roy Shirley. Roy & Ken went on to record a handful of sides for Linden and Sonia Pottinger (most notably "Lollipop Tonight" and "Paradise") and also teamed up with another duo, Joe White and Chuck Berry to perform as the Leaders. The quartet went on to record a handful of songs, including "Fire", "I Don't Want To Cry" (both issued on the Anderson label) and a Ska version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", produced by respected band leader, Granville Williams (see CDTRL 364), but disbanded soon after. Meanwhile, Ken resumed his partnership with Cole to cut a number of impressive singles for Coxsone Dodd, with the original version of "Artibella" and "World's Fair" among their most popular releases from this period.

In October 1965, a violent fracas resulted in Ken being shot by a policeman although fortunately, the injury did not prove life threatening and by the close of the year, Ken was back making music. By now, he had been convinced by Dodd to embark full-time on a solo career, some two years after recording his first song alone. B. B. Seaton recently recollected Ken's first solo attempt as being around 1963:

"The first song I did was a song called 'Only You, Patricia Can Make My Dreams Come True' for Coxsone. Ken Boothe recorded 'Prevention', at the same time - that was the first song he ever recorded [alone]. It was never released, but in the studio when he did it, it was a massive thing - the musicians went crazy…Ken's song was a hit in the studio, but mine was a hit on the street."

Contrary to Seaton's comments, "Prevention" was issued at the time, although for reasons best known to Dodd, the single mysteriously credited Ken as the Dragonaire. Some two years on, the producer made no attempt to conceal Ken's identity, with one of the first singles to bear the singer's name being the superb self-penned driving Ska number "You're No Good", a song revived to great effect by the singer in the late seventies. Other recordings from Ken's early solo career included renderings of two Soul ballads, "Oo-Wee Baby" and "Lonely Teardrops", both of which sold in large numbers, convincing him he was right to go it alone.

In the summer of 1966, Jamaican music began to undergo a major change, with Ska slowly supplanted by the slower rhythms of Rocksteady and this development finally enabled Ken to express himself fully as a singer. With Ken finally beginning to realize his potential as a performer, the hits began to come thick and fast, with "Danger Zone", "The Train Is Coming", "(Don't Fight It) Feel It", "The Girl I Left Behind" and "I Don't Want To See You Cry" all selling in vast numbers during the latter half of 1966.

Around the beginning of the following year, Ken strayed from the confines of Dodd's Studio One set-up to attend a recording session supervised by George Phillips (aka Phil Pratt) for former Skatalites' road manager, Blondel Calnek (aka Ken Lack). The afternoon's work resulted in the soulful "The One I Love" and an impressive version of Barbara Lynn's R&B hit, "You Left the Water Running", both of which saw issue on the short-lived Star imprint. But the hiatus with Calnek proved short-lived and Ken was soon back with Dodd, recording such notable hits as "My Heart Is Gone", "Puppet On A String", "The Girl I Left Behind" and an updated version of "Home, Home, Home", all of which were gathered on his aptly titled debut album, "Mr Rocksteady".

Following his participation in a UK tour with fellow Studio one acts, Alton Ellis and the Soul Vendors, Ken cut a number of sides for Sonia Pottinger, finding the Jamaican charts again with "Say You", and "Lady With The Starlight", the melody of which was adapted from Nat 'King' Cole's 1963 pop hit, "Those Lazy, Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer". He then resumed recording for Coxsone Dodd, providing the producer with hits such as "When I Fall In Love", "Moving Away", "Tomorrow" and "Live Good", but later in 1968, he left once again to join up with a number of fellow performers in the formation of the Links label. B. B. Seaton later recalled the brief history of the project:

"Links was an organization formed by The Melodians, The Gaylads, Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson because of the dissatisfaction with the producers at the time. We said we'd like to do our own stuff so we could learn and see what the business is all about. We started recording ourselves at W.I.R.L., using Lyn Taitt [& The Jets] and we did 'It Comes And Goes' [The Melodians], a track called 'Give Love A Try', by Delroy Wilson, backed with "Soul Resolution", both of which I wrote. And we [The Gaylads] did a song called "Looking For A Girl" and Ken Boothe did 'Can't You See' and 'Bright Eyes' [aka 'I Remember Someone']. Once we had a hit with 'It Comes And Goes' [by the Melodians], there was a bit of a problem in the camp with The Melodians. They said that because it was their song that was a hit, they wanted more money than everybody else. We said no, that wasn't the idea. It was all our money, like a pool, so if it's a hit, we should all benefit from it and build the thing up until it works. But as well as that we were also getting a fight from the system, although we didn't realize it until about ten years after when Neville Lee [from Dynamic Records organization] said to me, 'We gave you guys a fight because we didn't want you to come through'. And I said, 'Why are you telling me this? It was me and my kids you were fighting and all I was trying to do was live like anyone else'. But anyway, we had to scrap the whole thing and Ken started singing for Coxsone when we weren't supposed to be recording for anybody else."

Prior to Ken's decision to renew his association with Dodd, he also performed as an organist in an instrumental group that included Seaton and Delano Stewart of the Gaylads, along with Lloyd Charmers, as the latter recalled in an interview for Black Music in 1974:

"I had a band…me, B.B. Seaton, Winston Stewart and Ken Boothe. We got together as a little band and played at the Baby Grand club in Crossroads, Kingston. Then we went to the studio and made 'Watch This Sound' [voiced by the Uniques]."

In July 1968, Ken was approached by Embassy Cigarettes to advertise their product for two months, with the deal leading to the formation of the Swinging Kings [named after the brand of cigarette by the company], a group that featured Ken, along with Leroy Sibbles, Phil Callender, Robert Lyn and Eric Frater. The ensemble made numerous appearances around Jamaica and scored a best selling single with the Coxsone Dodd-produced, "Without Love" before disbanding in the autumn. Later in the year, Ken joined fellow Studio One acts, the Heptones, Delroy Wilson and the Soul Vendors on a tour of Nassau and upon his return home, re-united with his former Links stable mates who had signed for Sonia Pottinger's Gay Feet operation. Although the liaison with Gay Feet resulted in a fine new version of "Live Good" and the equally impressive "Somewhere", Ken decided resume recording for Coxsone Dodd and over the next few months cut a number of popular singles that were later included on his second album, "More Of Ken Boothe".

Early in 1969, Ken once again parted company with Dodd, cutting "Can't Fight Me Down" and "I'm Not For Sale" for Phil Pratt, followed soon after by "Old Fashioned Way" and a version of Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", produced by Keith Hudson. Despite the popularity of these sides, Ken was yet again lured back into the fold at Studio One, recording "Pleading" and his 1969 Festival Song entry, "Be Yourself", prior to embarking on a tour of Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana with Prince Buster, the Gaylets, Hortense Ellis and the Sound Dimension.

When he returned home, Ken finally severed all ties with Dodd, deciding to join his former Links associates who by now formed a sizeable part of the increasingly impressive roster of artistes at Leslie Kong's Beverley's label. Since the latter half of 1969, Ken's close friend B. B. Seaton had played a key role in Kong's success, with the multi-talented singer acting as the producer's arranger and talent scout, as well as performing with his group, the Gaylads on a multitude of Beverley's releases, both as a main act and as backing vocalists. In addition, Seaton penned songs for many of the label's acts, with Ken particularly benefiting from the arrangement. Among the Seaton compositions he recorded at this time were "Why Baby Why", "Love And Unity" and a song co-written by Ken himself, entitled "Freedom Street". The latter, which went on to top the Trinidad charts for six weeks and was voted by leading Jamaican radio station, RJR as the 'Best Song Of 1970' has been often quoted as being Ken's all-time favourite song.

In the early summer months of '70, Ken maintained his remarkably high success rate, cutting a popular remake of his old Ska hit "Artibella" (which charted in Guyana) for Phil Pratt and further popular singles for Beverley's, most notably "Now I Know", "Drums Of Freedom" and a superb interpretation of the Royalettes R&B hit, "It's Gonna Take A Miracle". These, along with the aforementioned titles for Kong were gathered on Ken's next album, "Freedom Street", issued in Jamaica later that year and finally by Trojan in the UK in 1974.

In July, he left Jamaican shores once again, touring Canada and New York with leading Kingston-based show band, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, but quickly resumed his hit-making ways upon returning to Jamaica. Further sessions with Phil Pratt resulted in "Why", "Morning", "Give To Me" and later, an updated version of one of his lesser-known Rocksteady sides, "Winey Winey", re-titled "Miss Wine-E-Wine-E". Also around this time he cut the soulful ballad, "Good To Be Black", which saw issue on Howard McGraw and Wayne Jones' Howaynes label.

Ken also became involved in the creation of the Conscious Minds, a group that quickly made their mark on the local music scene, as B.B. Seaton recalled:

"That was me on guitar, with Ken Boothe on organ, Joe White on piano, Maurice [Roberts] on bass and a guy called Derrick Stewart on drums - we took him out of the military band. We recorded 'My Jamaican Girl' and 'People Crying' which we gave to Beverley's to distribute. We also did other things like 'Lollipop Girl' for Derrick Harriott and 'Don't Get Weary' with Tony Brevett."

Assisted financially by producer Pete Weston, the Conscious Minds went on to launch their own Soul Beat and Splash labels, a development that allowed Ken the opportunity to produce a number of his own sides, such as the excellent "Hallelujah", "Trying To Reach" and "Stop Your Crying". The group also leased a number of recordings to Leslie Kong, including the aforementioned 'My Jamaican Girl' and 'People Crying', along with Ken's own "I Wish It Could Be Peaceful Again" and "Your Feeling And Mine".

Following Kong's sudden death from heart failure in August 1971, Ken and Seaton began strengthening their ties with Lloyd Charmers, who by this time was firmly established as one of Jamaica's leading producers. Charmers preferred to maintain a small roster of artists and for the next year or so, the majority of singles issued by the producer featured one, two or the entire trio, as he explained in 1974:

"I started producing Ken Boothe, B. B. Seaton and [singer] Busty Brown, so we decided to form a group as the Messengers. Me and Ken would make a recording, then me and B. B., then Busty and B. B., then Busty and Ken. But you know, we go under different names. Any one sell, we split it. It was a four-man thing. Hits? We had 'Lean On Me' with B. B., 'Ain't No Sunshine' with Ken".

Ken also enjoyed local success with his fine re-make of "Thinking" (re-titled "So Nice"), a medley of old hits entitled "Six In One" and one of the first overtly Rastafarian songs to top the Jamaican charts - the magnificent "Rasta Never Fails", on which he was accompanied vocally by Charmers. Around this time, Charmers also gave a number of recordings to music entrepreneur, Pete Weston, who issued the album, "The Great Ken Boothe Meets The Gaylads".

In 1972, Ken attended a one-off session for Winston 'Niney' Holness that spawned the Jamaican chart-topper, "Silver Words", while among his finest efforts with Charmers was the aforementioned "Ain't No Sunshine" a sublime version of the Manhattans' R&B ballad, "I'm The One Love Forgot" (aka "Out Of Love") and a magnificent rendering of Al Green's "Look What You've Done To Me", all of which appeared on his next collection, "Black, Gold And Green".

The Boothe/Charmers partnership paid dividends throughout the following year, the pair producing some of the most sophisticated Soul-Reggae ever to be created. Among the sides to receive the special Ken Boothe treatment in 1973 were a number of songs previously recorded by American acts, with Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black", Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and the Fleetwoods "Come Softly To Me" all being seemingly effortlessly transformed into Reggae masterpieces. Later that year, Charmers released another superb collection of Ken's work entitled "Let's Get It On", but despite the commercial potential of the material, mainstream success outside his native Jamaica proved elusive.

Thankfully, international recognition of Ken's outstanding vocal abilities finally came in the autumn of 1974, when his beautiful interpretation of Bread's "Everything I Own" climbed into the UK Pop chart. In an interview with Jamaican Swing magazine in 1975, Ken explained his decision to immediately travel to Britain as soon as the record broke:

"When I heard that the record had made it in the charts, I decided to go to England to be available for live performances and such, because I had exploitation at the hands of various local and UK producers before and I knew that my presence would help push the record and at the same time, protect my interests."

On October 26th, "Everything I Own" hit the number one spot, remaining there for three weeks before finally being toppled by "Gonna Make You A Star" by British teen-idol, David Essex. For the follow-up, Trojan selected Charmers' own composition, "Crying Over You", which subsequently reached a respectable number eleven on the British listings early the following year.

Meanwhile, Ken had remained in Britain, making seven appearances on BBC's popular chart show "Top Of The Pops", as well as performing in front of the cameras for ITV's music programme, "Forty Five". He also toured extensively, performing to twenty packed venues around the country and recording a number of sides for Trojan under the supervision of in-house producer, Webster Shrowder. These subsequently appeared on a hastily put-together collection of his sides entitled "Everything I Own" that Trojan issued in the autumn of 1974. Meanwhile, Ken signed a five-year contract with the company, securing the services of London-based booking agent Tony King to look after his interests and arrange appearances in Britain. With the weight of Trojan's publicity machine behind him, it seemed Ken's future as a major international performer was assured, but unfortunately the timing could not have been worse. Not long after the ink had dried on the contract, Trojan went into liquidation and while it was soon back in business again as part of the Saga Music group, the company would never succeed in recapturing its share of the Jamaican music market.

In 1987, Ken gave an interview for British black music magazine, Echoes in which he recalled his frustration at this development:

"I didn't know there was going to be a bankruptcy at Trojan, I thought this was my lift off into the business. After 'Everything I Own' went to number one and I went back to Jamaica after the tour, I thought this was going to be a long-lasting thing. But no royalty statements returned to the island. [I only learned] later on that the new company was bankrupt. The new company, Saga, who bought out the assets wouldn't sign any other artist unless I signed. Now, at that time, another contract was being negotiated for me in Germany with Phonogram and I was going to get a million pounds to sign it. But instead of leaving the others suffering, I decided to go with them [Trojan]".

Sadly, it soon became evident Saga lacked any real experience or enthusiasm for Jamaican music and over the next few years, the company did little to effectively promote its Reggae acts. Although Ken went on to record a number of wonderful recordings with Charmers, many of which were included on his 1976 album, "Blood Brothers", the disappointment of his situation with Trojan resulted in his decision to cease recording to concentrate on his live work. Two years passed before he was finally coaxed back into the studio to record a showcase album for Neville Lee's Sonic Sounds Records. The popularity of the LP prompted Ken to resume his recording career in earnest and over the next year or so, he recorded material for Phil Pratt and Bunny Lee that later appeared on the albums "Who Gets Your Love", "Disco Rockers" and "I'm Just A Man". Sadly, by now Ken had become increasingly dependent on drugs, a problem that led to both emotional and financial difficulties and had it not been for the support of his new manager, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, Ken may well have gone the way of many other celebrities.

In 1980, a self-produced collection, "Reggae For Lovers" indicated Ken was back to his best and over the next years, recordings for a variety of producers, including Delroy Francis, Jack Ruby, Sly & Robbie, Dean Fraser and Tappa Zukie ensured he remained at the forefront of the Jamaican music scene. January 1986 saw the release of Ken's impressive "Imagine" album, while later that year the double header 45, "Oh What A Smile Can Do" b/w "Open The Door' saw Ken back near the top of the reggae chart. There was also renewed interest in his back catalogue following Boy George's 1987 hit version of "Everything I Own", the arrangements of which owed much to Ken's own rendering of the song.

Three years later, British Reggae band, UB40 also paid tribute to the singer with their version of "Just Another Girl" featuring on their best-selling LP, "Labour Of Love 2", while further proof of their reverence for the great man was illustrated in their interpretations of "Crying Over You" and "Train Is Coming" that appeared on their third "Labour Of Love" volume.

During the early nineties, Ken worked with a number of leading producers, including Lloyd 'King Jammy' James, Hugh 'Redman' James, Bobby Digital and Earl 'Chinna' Smith, while in 1995, he united with deejay Shaggy to re-cut "The Train Is Coming". Used in soundtrack for the film, "Money Train", the recording finally returned him to the international charts, after an absence of over twenty years.

In the years since, Ken has eased off somewhat from performing and while he may no longer be at the cutting edge of the Jamaican music scene, he remains a revered and popular figure in the industry, with hopefully many more years of music making ahead.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

Everything I Own

Everything I Ownis the seventh studio album by Jamaincan recording artist Ken Boothe. Originally released by Trojan Records in 1974 it should not to be confused with the three Ken Boothe compilation albums,Everything I Own (1997),Everything I Own: The Best of Ken Boothe(2003) andEverything I Own: The Definitive Collection(2007).[1]

The most famous track from this album is the title track, 'Everything I Own' (originally recorded by American band Bread), which was an international hit and became number one on the UK Singles Chart. 'Crying Over You' was another single taken from the album, reaching number11 on the UK Singles charts in 1974.

Desmond Dekker

Desmond Dekker’s impact of upon the world of music can never be underestimated. His groundbreaking recordings during the sixties and early seventies opened the way for the likes of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff to make their mark on the world stage. From 1967 to 1970, he enjoyed a run of international chart hits as yet unequalled by any other Jamaican performer and yet, for all his success, Desmond’s achievements were often overlooked by music writers.

Born Desmond Adolphus Dacres, on July 16th 1943 in Kingston, Jamaica, he spent his early childhood on the family farm in Danvers Pen, St Thomas where he was raised by his father. During his youth, he regularly sang in the local church choir, although his desire to become a singer was sparked by an altogether different kind of music, as he recalled in an interview with respected Jamaican music historian, Laurence Cane-Honeysett in 1999:

'The person who really used to inspire me was Nat 'King' Cole, he was my idol. I heard him sing 'Stardust Melody' on the radio one time and I fell in love with his voice. Later, I used to watch the 'Alan Freed Rock & Roll Show' on TV and see people like Brook Benton Jackie Wilson and The Platters, who I used to like. But still, it was really Nat 'King' Cole who inspired me'

Around the age of fifteen, he moved to Kingston, where he completed his education at the famed Alpha Boys School. Upon graduating, he worked as a trainee engineer/welder at the South Camp Road Yard, where he met and befriended a certain young Robert Nesta Marley:

'I sometimes used to hang out with Bob at the yard. I used to watch him play football from the roof. I didn't play, 'cos cricket was more my thing. We kept in touch even after he made it big with The Wailers. Right up to the end, we remained friends.'

Throughout this time, music remained Desmond's over-riding passion, although a career as a singer still seemed a long way off:

'I also used to go to concerts and watch artistes like Derrick Morgan, Jimmy Cliff, Owen Gray, Count Prince Miller and The Blues Busters and I learnt a lot from seeing them in action…but I never thought I was good enough to put my words on record until I was learning engineering and welding. My friends there told me that I sounded good and after a while I began to take them seriously and they said to me I should give it a try, what did I have to lose?'

'I heard about Leslie Kong at Beverley's [Records] was auditioning for new artistes. So I took one afternoon off work to go down and audition for him, but he couldn't see me. So I tried again, but again he wouldn't see me. And my boss was getting really fed up with me. So when I went down again to Beverley's and he still wouldn't see me, I got very annoyed, because I knew my boss wouldn't let me have any more time off, so I forced my way into Beverley's and I said to Mr Kong, 'Do you want to hear me or not?' So he stopped the rehearsals and said, 'Alright, sing'. So I sang him some of my songs, including 'Honour Your Mother And Father' and Madgie' and he liked them. The next thing, I was recording them for him'.

Desmond's initial recording session was held at Jamaica's leading studio, Federal, where he was backed by some of Kingston's leading session players, including Theo Beckford (piano), Dennis Sindrey (guitar), Lloyd Mason (bass), Stanley Ribbs (trumpet) and 'Deadly' Headley Bennett (alto sax). Issued on the Kong's Beverley's imprint, 'Honour Your Mother And Father' (backed with 'Madgie') became a number one hit on the island and marked the beginning of a hugely successful relationship between singer and producer, which was to last into the seventies.

Desmond's follow-up singles, 'Parents' (b/w 'Labour For Learning') and 'Dracula' both sold well,but despite his success as a solo performer, the growing popularity of vocal groups in Jamaica convinced him the form a group of his own. He later explained:

'There were a lot of vocal groups coming through in Jamaica at that time. You had Alton Ellis and The Flames, The Paragons, The Wailers…so I thought maybe I should get together with a group. At first I cut 'King Of Ska' with a group of guys called The Cherry Pies. Then I teamed up with a group called The Four Aces. They had already recorded a song for Beverley's called 'Hoochy Koochy Kai Po', which had sold quite well. So I heard them and I asked if they wanted to sing with me, and they said, 'Sure'. So that's how we got together. There was Clive (Campbell), Barry (Howard, aka Al Barry), Carl (Winston James Samuel) and a guy named Patrick (Johnson). Our first song together was called 'Get Up Edina' and that was a big hit. We then did some other tunes, like 'This Woman' and 'Mount Zion'. Then Patrick left and the group became just 'The Aces'.'

Soon after Johnson's departure, Desmond and the group became one of the first Jamaican artistes to achieve international success with a homegrown recording, when '0.0.7 (Shanty Town)' breached the UK charts in July 1967. The record's popularity in Britain came something of a surprise to Desmond:

'I was amazed when '0.0.7' became a hit in England, because I thought people wouldn't understand the lyrics. It was actually about the troubles that were happening in Jamaica at the time. There'd been student riots and the police and soldiers had been called in to break them up. It was like in the movies, '0.0.7.' and 'Oceans Eleven' [the television programme]. But I think people here [in Britain] liked the tune even if they didn't really understand what the song was all about.'

To promote the record, Graeme Goodall, who had issued the single on his Pyramid label in the UK, invited the group to London, and while Desmond, Barry Howard and Carl Samuel readily accepted the offer, Clive Campbell refused to travel due to his fear of flying. After a successful tour, the trio returned to Jamaica and quickly resumed the task of making hit records, with singles such as 'Unity', Sabotage', 'Beautiful And Dangerous' and 'It Pays'. The group also saw the release of two collections of their work; '0.0.7' (in the UK) and 'Action' (in Jamaica), while their standing as the island's most popular vocal group was confirmed with their triumph in the 1968 Jamaican Festival Song competition:

'I wrote 'Intensified' [aka 'Music Like Dirt'] because the year before, we'd only come second with 'Unity', behind The Jamaicans' 'Ba Ba Boom', which won it. So when the competition came around again, I made sure we won it. After that, I thought 'I've won it, let someone else win it next time', so I didn't enter after that.'

By now, Clive Campbell had left the Aces permanently to work on a cruise ship, but his departure failed to dent the popularity of the group. In the wake of their Festival Song winner, Leslie Kong released another album of their material, suitably entitled 'Intensified', which featured some of the trio's hits, along with a number of new recordings, among which was a song called 'Poor Me Israelites'. The track was selected as the group's next UK single and while it quickly became a firm favourite among Britain's West Indian community and the country's growing 'Skinhead' fraternity, the BBC claimed it was poorly mixed and refused to play it on air. As a result, Graeme Goodall slightly re-mixed and retitled the song and re-submitted it to the all-powerful Corporation. The second time around, the BBC offered no objections to the quality of its production and the record swiftly began to climb the charts. On April 16th, 1969, 'Israelites' became the first Jamaican-produced single to hit the number one spot in the UK, and the feat was repeated soon after in West Germany, Holland, Sweden, South Africa and Canada. In the USA, the record proved almost equally as popular, breaking into the Billboard Pop chart in May, before eventually peaking at the highly respectable number nine position. Yet again, Desmond was astonished by the popularity of the song:

'When 'Israelites' hit, I was surprised because nobody really could understand what it was about. People thought I was singing, 'My ears are alight' and that when I sang, 'I get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir', they thought I was saying, 'Get up in the morning, baked beans for breakfast'! But still, people loved it and of course it became a big, big hit for me.'

The follow-up single, 'It Miek', was also lifted from the 'Intensified' album and like 'Israelites' was re-mixed and re-named (it had originally been titled 'A It Mek') by Goodall prior to release in the UK. Although the record failed to reach the heights of the group's previous hit, it became a hit across Europe and peaked at number seven in the UK charts in the summer of '69. Early the following year, Desmond and The Aces enjoyed their third successive British chart entry with 'Pickney Gal', which reached number 45 early the following year. By this time, Desmond had returned to the UK to promote his recordings in Europe, although it would be some months before Barry Howard and Carl Samuel would make the journey across the Atlantic from Jamaica.

By 1970, Desmond had signed for Trojan records and decided to make London his permanent base of operations. An arrangement was made whereby Leslie Kong would produce rhythm tracks in Kingston, which he would then send to England for Desmond to over-dub his vocals. One of the first songs recorded in this manner was the singer's hugely popular version of the Jimmy Cliff song, 'You Can Get It If You Really Want', which in the summer of 1970 was just pipped to the UK number one spot by Elvis Presley's, 'The Wonder Of You'. But just as Desmond's long-term future as a major recording artiste seemed guaranteed, his career began to stutter. For all its merits, his next single, 'The Song We Used To Sing' failed to dent the UK charts, while the follow-up, 'Licking Stick' b/w 'The More You Live' received a similar cool response from the British public.

Then, in August 1971, Desmond's producer and mentor, Leslie Kong, suffered what proved to be a fatal heart attack. Without Kong's business acumen, Desmond was ripe for exploitation and there was no shortage to individuals ready to take advantage. Their gain was Desmond's loss and the singer's career went into free-fall. A five-year hit-free period ensued and when his career did finally get back on track, it was an oldie that provided the catalyst. Re-released by popular demand, 'Israelites' once again broke into the British charts in the spring of 1975 and eventually peaked at number ten. Its success returned Desmond to the limelight and paved the way for another hit in 'Sing A Little Song', which reached number 16 that autumn. But the change in Desmond's fortunes proved short-lived and further hits failed to materialize.

For the next five years, Desmond's career remained in the doldrums. He continued to perform on the club circuit in Britain and on the continent, but became increasingly detached from the contemporary music scene. The Ska revival of the late seventies led renewed interest in Desmond as an artiste and in 1980, he signed to one of the UK's leading independent labels, Stiff. For his initial recordings with the company, Desmond was paired with the British New Wave group, Graham Parker And The Rumour, but the resulting 'Black And Dekker' album proved commercially unsuccessful. As a result, Robert Palmer was brought in to oversee Desmond's next set of releases that were gathered on his second LP for the company, entitled 'Compass Point'. Unfortunately, despite containing some fine material, sales of the album were poor and Desmond was unceremoniously dropped from Stiff's roster. Worse was to come in 1984, when a British court declared him bankrupt. It was a terrible comedown for a man whose talent should have ensured a long and glorious career. But while many would have been unable to lift themselves from such depths of despair, Desmond showed enormous determination and strength of spirit by returning to the road to try and revive his fortunes.

His perseverance was finally rewarded in 1987 when he was offered a new contract with Trojan Records, for whom he recorded until 1999. While never recapturing the glory days of the sixties and early seventies, his skills as a performer remained undiminished and he remained popular on the live music circuit right up until his untimely passing from a heart attack on the morning of May 26th 2006.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

007 / Best Of

Clancy Eccles

Born in Dean Pen in St Mary's near Highgate on December 9th 1940, Clancy Eccles was raised in the Jamaican countryside before going out on the road aged 15. He gained his musical apprentiship under the tutalidge of showman and music impresario, Lord Messam, who also worked with such luminaries as the Blues Busters, Higgs & Wilson and Busty Brown. After a spell serving drinks and singing R&B, Calypso and mento numbers at a club in Ocho Rios, he moved to Kingston, where he promptly made his first contribution to the local music scene with his recording of 'Freedom' for leading producer, Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd. The song was subsequently heavily featured on the producer's 'Downbeat' sound system, although it was another two years before it saw official release. Over the next few years, Clancy cut a series of singles for Dodd, including 'River Jordan', 'I Live And I Love', 'Glory Allelujah', 'Rock Of Ages' and 'Leave Earth'. In1963, he recorded Judgement' and 'Baby Please' for Leslie Kong's business partner, Charlie Moo, prior to cutting 'I Am The Greatest' (aka 'Cassius Clay') and 'I Need Your Love' for Mike Shadeed. The following year, he moved on to work with Lyndon Pottinger, who issued a handful of sides by the young singer, including 'Roam Jerusalem', 'Miss Ida' and 'Sammy No Dead'.

Financial remuneration for his recorded work proved fitful , however, and around 1965, Clancy moved to Annotto Bay, where he worked for a while as a tailor. The following year he decided to reactivate his singing career, supervising the production of two of his own recordings, 'Darling Don't Do That' and 'Guns Town' at Coxsone Dodd's studio, which appeared in limited numbers in Jamaica on a blank label 'pre' release. The following year he hired Duke Reid's famed Treasure Isle studio, where he produced 'Say What You're Saying' by local singer, Eric 'Monty' Morris, which he issued on the newly launched New Beat label. The disc proved a major hit on the island and over the next few years, Clancy enjoyed considerable success as one of Jamaica's most influential producers, with a slew of hits featuring himself, and artists such as including Larry Marshall, Busty Brown, Joe Higgs, King Stitt, the Dynamites, Lord Creator and the Fabulous.

Clancy's charitable nature also led to a number of others making their mark in the Jamaican music industry, as he assisted Lee Perry launch his Upsetter label in 1968 and lent Niney the money to press copies of his hit, 'Blood And Fire' in 1971. He also ensured artists received all the money they were due, as Kirk Salmon of The Fabulous Flames recalled in an interview with journalist, Dave Kingston of Canadian magazine, 'Reggae Quarterly':

'Clancy wasn't one of those rip-off producers. Clancy treated us good…'cause at that time a lot of the artists were suffering. We could have suffered too, like the rest of them, but Clancy is more humanitarian than a lot of them…we always have money. Clancy opened a bank account for us in Jamaica when we were in Canada and put money in, so that when we came back we had money. He did a lot more than what a normal producer would do, because of the type of person he is. He's kind-hearted.'

Clancy continued to record material, ranging from heartfelt love songs, to stinging social commentary right up to 1977,when he ceased work in disgust at the rising price of records on the island. His output over the years that followed was erratic, although although singles such as 'Mash Up The Country' and 'Iniquity Worker' from the mid-eighties rank alongside such classics as the pro-Michael Manley 1972 election anthem, 'Rod Of Correction' and the magnificent 'Generation Belly' from the mid-seventies.

Clancy passed away on June 30th 2005, at a hospital in Spanish Town, just outside Kingston, after suffering a stroke that had left him in a coma for 5 days. With his passing, Jamaican music has lost yet another of its greats, whose musical talents were equalled by his kindness, warmth and sincerity.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

Freedom The Anthology

Alton Ellis

Paying a fitting tribute to the career of Alton Nehemiah Ellis in just a few paragraphs is an impossible task. For well over forty years, his inimitable voice has thrilled hundreds of thousands worldwide on countless classic Ska, Soul, Rock Steady and Reggae recordings, many of which he also happened to have penned. His passing last night in Hammersmith Hospital is a terrible loss not just the world of music, but the world at large, for, as all who came to meet him can testify, he was truly a prince among men.

Born on 1st September 1938 in Kingston, Jamaica, Alton was raised in the city's Trenchtown district, where he attended Ebenezer Senior School and Boys' Town schools, excelling in both music and sports, particularly cricket, table-tennis and boxing. He also illustrated a natural talent for dancing, frequently placing first at local dance contests, although as time went by, singing gradually took precedence over his fancy footwork, especially after impressing his fellow students at a school concert with a selection of Mario Lanza songs from the motion picture, 'The Student Prince'.

After completing his education in 1955, Alton found work as a labourer on a building site in Stony Hill and encouraged by his workmates, auditioned for 'Vere John's Opportunity Hour', but intimidated by the competition that included Wilfred Jackie Edwards, Owen Gray and Lascelles Perkins, he withdrew from the contest, giving up on any thoughts of making it as a solo act in the process.

After putting all thoughts of becoming a full-time singer behind him for some two years, he was finally talked into reviving the ambition by his friend, Eddie Parkins, the pair forming the aptly named duo, Alton & Eddy.

It was also around this time he composed a plaintive ballad about a girl named 'Muriel' that promptly became a part of Alton & Eddy's repertoire. Soon after the duo auditioned for leading local producer, Clement 'Coxson' Dodd, who wasted no time arranging for the young singers to cut the song at Federal Studios, issuing the subsequent recording on his recently launched Worldisc label. The single swiftly made its way the top of the local charts spurring Dodd to produced further material by the pair, including 'My Heaven', 'Lullaby Angel', 'I Know It All', I'm Never Gonna Cry' and 'Yours'.

After their sojourn with Dodd, Alton & Eddy cut a handful of songs for Vincent Chin of Randy's Records, before Parkins left Jamaica for America after winning first prize in the talent contest, 'A Star Is Born'. Alton remained in Kingston where he began earning regular money working at a local printing works, although the job proved short-lived, the wanna-be singer laid off by his employers after a matter of months. The development sparked Alton into re-launching his singing career and after finding a new partner in the talented young John Holt, he was soon back at Randy's, recording a number of impressive sides for Randy's, most notably the excellent 'Rum Bumper'. His partnership with Holt proved short-lived, but Alton remained determined to remain in the music business, forming a vocal group initially consisting of his brother Leslie and Noel 'Scully' Simms, along with two friends, Baby G and Ronnie - among those to join later were Lloyd Charmers and Winston Jarrett.

Soon after Alton and the newly named 'Flames', commenced what proved to be an extremely fruitful relationship with Arthur 'Duke' Reid, the union spawning a series of Ska and Rocksteady hits commencing with an original composition entitled 'Dance Crasher'. A number of similarly themed anti-Rude Boy songs followed, most notably 'Don't Trouble People', 'Cry Tough', 'Blessings Of Love' and 'The Preacher', all of which had been penned by Alton.

As Rock Steady superseded Ska, Alton and the Flames continued to enjoy major successes, with 'Girl I've Got A Date', topping the national radio charts at the close of 1966. 'Rock Steady', the title of which was adopted as the generic name of the new style, followed in the spring, along with a fine cover of Gene Chandler's 1962 neo-Doo Wop hit, 'Duke Of Earl', 'All My Tears (Come Rolling)', 'Why Birds Follow Spring' and a sublime interpretation of Johnny Taylor's 'Ain't That Lovin' You (For More Reasons Than One)'.

Now firmly established as one of Jamaica's most popular vocalists, Alton suddenly found himself in a tug of war between Reid and his bitter rival, Coxson Dodd. And it was the latter who proved victorious, securing the singer for a UK tour and a series of recordings that included such enduring works as 'I Am Just A Guy', 'Mad, Mad', a wonderful version of Rosco Gordon's 'Let Him Try' and 'I'm Still In Love', the rhythm of which later provided the basis for Althea & Donna's international number one hit, 'Uptown Top Ranking'. Dodd also released Alton's debut album, 'Alton Ellis Sings Rock & Soul', although it was not enough to persuade the singer to stay long-term at Studio One and early the following year, he returned to Treasure Isle and reunited with the Flames.

Alton wasted little time in providing Reid with more hits, cutting a number of fine originals, including 'Oowee Baby, I Love You', 'How Can I' and 'I Can't Stand It', along with a magnificent rendering of Chuck Jackson's 'My Willow Tree'. Reid was also instrumental in also arranging for the singer to perform a number of concerts in New York, although the tour had to be cut-short to the sudden death of his mother in March.

A three week tour of Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas followed and upon its completion Alton resumed his recording career in earnest. It was around this time he first turned his hand to producing, initially assisted by leading session trumpeter, the late Johnny 'Dizzy' Moore. Among his self-produced sides from this period were 'My Time Is The Right Time' and 'The Message', although the corrupt system of record distribution on the island did nothing to help his cause as an independent record maker.

Another producer with whom Alton worked during 1968 was a Mr C. Bough, who like Reid was a former policeman who had experience as a sound system operator, albeit to a much lesser extent than the Treasure Isle boss. Among the songs cut for the enigmatic producer were 'I Can't Stand It', 'Tonight' (aka 'Feeling Inside') and 'Give Me Your Love' on which Alton was partnered by singer, David Isaacs.

Throughout the remainder of the year, Alton worked primarily with both Dodd and Reid, his popularity unaffected by the developing style of Reggae. For Dodd, he cut a number of superb sides (most notably his seminal version of Tyrone Davis' 'Can I Change My Mind') many of which were included on the singer's second album, 'The Best Of Alton Ellis', issued early in 1969, while his recordings for Reid were equally as accomplished, with 'Breaking Up' the stand-out track from the period. In addition to his studio work, he continued to tour extensively, spending four months performing in clubs around Canada with Jo Jo Bennett & the Fugitives in the spring.

Alton continued to record for both Dodd and Reid well into 1970, with the former releasing the singer's third album, 'Sunday Coming' later that year. Among his output for Reid was a fine duet with Phyllis Dillon, 'Remember That Sunday', and sublime re-workings of Junior Walker &; The All Stars' 'What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)' and the Brenda Holloway classic, 'You've Made Me So Very Happy', a song which also provided major hits for Blood, Sweat &; Tears and Lou Rawls.

Around this time Alton also enjoyed success with a variety of other Kingston-based producers, including Winston Riley, for whom he cut 'I'll Be Waiting', 'It's Your Thing' and 'Soul Groove'. He also worked with Lloyd Daley, who produced the immensely popular 'Back to Africa' and '(Lord) Deliver Us', Prince Buster, Phil Pratt and Sid Bucknor, as well sides for his own All-Tone label.

In 1971, Alton travelled to England, where he cut material for London-based producers Clancy Collins and Sylvan Bryan, while upon his return to Jamaica he continued to produce his own works for All-Tone, using the money from sessions for others to finance the label. Among those with whom he recorded for this purpose were Dodd, Pete Weston, Bunny Lee, Lloyd Charmers, Keith Hudson, Herman Chin-Loy, Joe Gibbs and Randy's.

Alton then returned to England, spending his time there to work with London-based producers, Dave Hadfield and Lloyd Coxsone. Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, Duke Reid took a clutch of the singer's best-known Treasure Isle sides and over-dubbed percussion to up-date the sound, releasing the re-mixed versions on the singer's fourth album, 'Mr Soul Of Jamaica'.

After his spell in the UK, Alton spent time in Jamaica, New York and Canada before returning to Britain where he decided to settle permanently. He remained active throughout the remainder of the decade, proving instrumental in launching Janet Kay's career and the subsequent Lover's Rock scene. In the eighties he launched his own Alltone Record shop in Brixton and continued to record on a regular basis, releasing a series of albums that included 'Mr Skabena', 'A New Day', 'Daydreaming', 'Continuation' and two '25th Jubilee Collections'. During this time he worked with a number of those who led a new wave of Reggae producers, most notably Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, King Jammy and Tapper Zukie.

As time went on, he eased off a little from his studio work, but continued to regularly perform live and was instrumental in the organisation of the popular Rock Steady Gala shows, held annually at the Hammersmith Palais over the Easter Bank Holidays. In 1994, after over thirty years in the business, his considerable contribution to the Jamaican music industry was officially acknowledged by the Jamaican Government, who awarded him the Order of Distinction on National Heroes Day. Few individuals have been more deserving of the honour.

Alton remained actively musically throughout the years that followed and in 2006 was inducted into the International Reggae &; World Music Awards (IRAWMA) Hall of Fame at a ceremony held at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York. But just over a year later, he fell ill and was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph glands. A course of chemotherapy followed and by the summer, he appeared to have overcome the disease. Sadly it was not the case and on August 10th, after performing half of his set at the Jazz Cafe in central London, he collapsed. He was taken immediately to hospital, but failed to respond to treatment, his condition deteriorating over the ensuing months.

At 4.45am on Saturday 11th October, he finally passed away, leaving behind his large, loving family, many friends and a multitude of fans - and a legacy that few will ever equal. The great Alton Nehemiah Ellis, a man who brought great joy though both is music and his presence, Rest In Peace.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

Mr Soul Of Jamaica

Ethiopians

Singers Leonard "Sparrow" Dillon, Stephen Taylor and Aston Morris united to found The Ethiopians in 1966, the same year that His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia visited Jamaica (though, in truth, the group was named after The Ethiopian Reorganization Centre in Trench Town, where the group rehearsed).

Dillon had a share of solo success in the first half of the decade, issuing the mento and ska sides "Beggars Have No Choice," "Ice Water" and "Suffering On The Land" under the name Jack Sparrow at Coxson Dodd's Studio One. Banking on Sparrow's success, Dodd picked up the group, but the trio was fleeting: Morris exited before the close of '66. Carrying on as a duo, Dillon and Taylor issued a string of harmony records that foretold the emerging rock steady sound, including "For You," "Free Man," "Dun Dead Already," "I'm Gonna Take Over Now," "Leave My Business Alone," "Owe Me No Pay Me" and "Why You Gonna Leave Me Now."

The duo left Coxson in late 1967, looking to pave their own path, with Dillon at the helm. Their recordings at WIRL yielded one of the greatest tunes of their career and of the rock steady period in general: "Train to Skaville" was a gleaming gem of the train-themed songs issued in the mid- to late-'60s, becoming not only a hit on the island but landing on the UK pop charts in autumn 1967, peaking at Number 40. (The song's legacy was fortified with ska revival band The Selecter's cover, issued as the A-side of their first post-Two Tone single in 1980.)

Dillon and Taylor drifted again, recording "Not Me" and "Cut Down On Your Speed" in '68 for Lee Perry at his embryonic Upsetter operation. The group issued "Reggae Hit The Town" the following year, making it - along with The Maytals' "Do The Reggay" - among the first tunes to call the new style. But it was The Ethiopians' bond with producer J.J. Johnson that would prove most bountiful, inaugurated with "Everything Crash," a vibrant dance song juxtaposed with a brutal commentary of the woes suffered by Jamaica as it strove to come into its own, freed of its colonial bonds. "Everything Crash" marked Jamaican music's turn into social commentary, portending the 'conscious' roots reggae sounds of the '70s; its lyrical content ensured that the song was banned from the airwaves. More hits followed - "Losing You" and "Woman A Capture Man" (1969), "Hong Kong Flu" (1970), "Selah" (1971) - all gathered on the group's Trojan debut, Reggae Power (TTL 10, 1969).

In the new decade, The Ethiopians began working with many of the island's top producers, including Vincent "Randy" Chin, Derrick Harriott, Winston Riley, Prince Buster, Joe Gibbs, Harry J., Alvin "G.G." Ranglin, Rupie Edwards and Lee "Scratch" Perry. But in 1975 everything did, indeed, crash, when Stephen Taylor was killed in a car accident as he was getting gas one night. The tragedy sidelined Dillon until 1977 when he returned with Slave Call, a suite of Rasta-inspired material, driven by a Nyahbinghi collective that Dillon assembled. Singularizing the name, Dillon issued Open the Gate of Zion as The Ethiopian, a strictly rockers affair cut with Sly & Robbie and The Revolutionaries at Channel One in 1978.

Dillon reunited with Coxson Dodd in 1982 and issued Everything Crash. Like many of the Studio One albums of the era, Everything Crash was a deft mix of thoughtful updates of Ethiopians classics and new tunes built on vintage Studio One rhythms. As the dances and the sounds changed in the 1980s, Dillon linked with roots ramparts Nighthawk Records in St. Louis, Missouri, who issued Dread Prophesy, a collaboration between The Ethiopian and new labelmates The Gladiators.

Though the Ethiopian's music fell from favor in the rise of digital dancehall, Dillon continued working on new material. Tragically, the possibility of new material has been truncated: Dillon passed away on September 28, 2011, succumbing to cancer. He was 68.

Engine '54

Marcia Griffiths

The white hot heat of the reggae business with its insatiable appetite for the new and the now has meant that over the years countless artists have had their spell at the top. Some enjoy a brief fleeting moment, others a longer period, but it is usually not very long before the styles change and last week's sensation is this week's has been. The record buying public, ever eager for novelty, move on. A very select few are able to make the proud boast that their music has endured in a profession where the only constant is change and, over the decades, their talent and personality have proved to be bigger and stronger than the power of fashion. Marcia Griffiths, Jamaica's undisputed first lady of song, is undoubtedly one of those few and, during her long and illustrious career, she has attained the lasting success and popularity that others can only dream about. Marcia's dreams came true…

Marcia was born Linneth Marcia Griffiths in 1949 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father, Joseph Griffiths, was a cabinetmaker and her mother, Beatrice, looked after the family of four (Marcia has two sisters and one brother but her brother is now sadly deceased). She feels that her close and loving family has always been the basis of her personal and professional success. Her father sang, but not professionally, and he was a skilled and accomplished craftsman. Marcia still has some of his furniture in her home that she would never part with.

"I grew up in a very humble and very Christian like family… love was all we had… That togetherness, that family bond."

As a young girl, Marcia sang in her church choir and would entertain her neighbours by singing and reciting passages from the Bible. One of her neighbours was the girlfriend of Phillip James of the Blues Busters the groundbreaking vocal duo who were the singing sensations of the early sixties with songs such as 'Wide Awake In A Dream', 'Behold' and 'Wings Of A Dove'. In the spring of 1964, Phillip heard Marcia singing and was so impressed that he introduced her to bandleader Byron Lee who immediately agreed with the Blues Buster's opinion of Marcia. The pair decided to put her on the bill of their next concert and very soon after Marcia made her professional debut on Easter Monday morning in Byron Lee's Easter Stage Show at the Carib Theatre, Kingston, singing Carla Thomas' 'No Time To Lose'. Later that same night she appeared on television "doing two of Nancy Wilson's songs". Marcia recalled that she had not yet developed her own style:

"We try to sound exactly like them. It's not until maybe after a couple of years you develop your own sound."Her first appearances were so inspired that a race soon commenced to sign Marcia, with both Byron Lee's manager, Ronnie Nasralla, and Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd from Studio One competing for her father's signature on a recording contract. Ronnie Nasralla wanted to manage Marcia and for her to sing with Byron Lee's Dragonaires, but Joseph Griffiths already knew Coxsone's Down Beat Sound System and when Coxsone approached him, he decided that young Marcia would go to Studio One on Brentford Road. Marcia was still only fifteen and she was chaperoned at all her recording sessions and stage shows by either her father or her mother:

"If I am performing anywhere in Jamaica my father was there because I was under age and I'm going to school and everything so he was everywhere."

It was not long before her parents were not alone in looking after Marcia's welfare. Bob Andy, who had already established himself as one of Studio One's top singers and songwriters, kept a very close guard on her too. As she was growing up, Marcia remembered watching Bob rehearse in their neighbourhood with the original Paragons and their relationship blossomed as they worked together at Studio One. Marcia counts herself as truly blessed to have met with someone with Bob's depth of experience at this early stage in her career. The male dominated music business can be a frightening place for a young woman, but Bob was always there to look after her.

"God just put him there to just make sure I was guided and protected as a young girl."

Coxsone had originally tried to steer Marcia towards emotional ballads and matched her in duets with Tony Gregory and, most memorably, with Bob Marley on the beautiful 'Oh My Darling' but Marcia's first recordings unfortunately failed to dent the hit parade. It would be three years before she enjoyed her first hit and, in the cut and thrust world of Jamaican music, this should tell all you need to know about Coxsone's faith and trust in Marcia Griffiths. This was rewarded when the Rocksteady-into-Reggae 'Feel Like Jumping' became her first hit record in 1968. The popularity of this release has never faded, and she followed it up with the sublime 'Truly', 'Tell Me Now', 'Melody Life' and, in a return to those early days, a fabulous upbeat duet with Bob Andy, 'Always Together'. Marcia, like so many other Jamaican stars, sees her time at Studio One as her musical education and she has nothing but praise for Mr. Dodd and the time she spent at Brentford Road.

"…Because any great singer that you can think of that came out of Jamaica they all pass through Studio One… I thought about it and I believe that it's the honesty and the sincerity and the innocence that all these musics was done with. It's very pure. We were all so innocent. We just sung our hearts out…"

Marcia not only sung her heart out in the studio, but also gained valuable experience performing at stage shows in Kingston where she would be the opening act for visiting artists from the U.S.A.

"At that time in Jamaica it was just myself and Hortense Ellis. The only two female singers who were active in Jamaica… So I was fortunate enough to share the stage with quite a few of those performers. One of the first persons that came down there at that stage of my career was Carla Thomas herself and then Betty Wright came, Ben E. King, quite a few of them. Within the year we would have had about four or five different singers from the United States on big stage shows."

Marcia stayed at Studio One but "as time moved on we wanted to find some greener grass" and she was approached by record producer Harry Johnson (known as Harry J) who had recently hit with the Beltones' 'No More Heartaches'. Together with Bob Andy they recorded a version of Nina Simone's anthemic 'Young Gifted & Black'. "He actually came to Studio One and talked to myself and Bob Andy and we went to the studio and that's when we recorded 'Young Gifted & Black'". The Jamaican release was a moderate hit, but Trojan then licensed it for the U.K. where Johnny Arthey added a captivating string arrangement. In March 1970 this new version reached Number 5 in the U.K. National Charts and Bob and Marcia flew to the U.K. to promote the record. They subsequently toured Europe and Marcia recorded two songs, 'Stay Right Here' and 'Everything Is Beautiful', in both English and German that were released by Phillips in Germany. Bob & Marcia followed up their breakthrough hit with 'Pied Piper', which reached Number 11 in the U.K. charts in the summer of the following year and led to the duo being signed to C.B.S. Unfortunately at that time no major record company had a great deal of experience or knowledge in managing and promoting Reggae artists and Reggae music and the duo's association with C.B.S. did not last very long. Marcia and Bob returned to Jamaica.

Marcia soon found herself back in the Kingston studios where she recorded her debut solo album for the legendary, but still criminally underrated, Lloyd 'Charmers' Tyrell. 'Play Me…Sweet And Nice' was released in Jamaica on Federal and in the U.K by Trojan, who re-titled the collection 'Sweet Bitter Love' and augmented the track-listing with a second version of 'Play Me', featuring the producer on harmonies. By this time, Marcia had also returned to the stage and asked her fellow female vocalists, Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt, to sing harmonies for her at a stage show in New Kingston during the summer of 1974. Bob Marley was so taken with the trio that he asked them to sing harmonies with him as part of the Wailers, following the departure of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh from the group's line-up. And so Marcia, Rita & Judy became the I Threes. Bunny also enlisted the I Threes to sing harmonies on some of his early Solomonic releases, such as the immortal 'Searching For Love'.

Marcia sung as one of Bob Marley's I Threes from 1974 to 1980, only ever missing out a tour because she was pregnant, and the trio's contribution to the sound of Bob Marley & the Wailers during that period is immeasurable. To this day Marcia says that not a day goes by when she does not think about Bob, Rita and Judy. As well as working with Bob Marley and bringing up her three sons, ET Junior, Yohance and Marcus, she also found the time to record two solo albums for Sonia Pottinger's High Note label, 'Naturally' and 'Steppin'', both of which have established themselves as classics of the genre.

"I decided to try a woman after all, because maybe she would have more compassion and she would understand another woman's feelings. So I decided to give it a try and it worked wonderful."

In 1981 she recorded an entire album's worth of material for Bunny Wailer's Solomonic label, but only a handful, including the twelve-inch 'Tribulation' and 'Woman A Come', were released as singles.

"So when Bunny and myself got together to do this album I really enjoyed it 'cause the songs that he wrote were songs that I enjoyed doing because they were truth and reality. The album that we did is still on tape…"

Don Drummond's tragic partner, Magureita, recorded the original version of 'Woman Come' for Treasure Isle and Marcia remembered seeing the singularly striking singer while she was working at Studio One:

"I first saw Maguerita in 1965. I have never seen a woman more beautiful in my life than that woman."

Coming from a woman as beautiful as Marcia Griffiths this is praise indeed. Another recording from the Solomonic sessions, 'Electric Boogie', was released in Jamaica on a seven-inch single in 1982 and it reached the Number One position that Christmas. The song's reputation continued to grow until eventually a dance was set to the song in Washington D.C. and it become a massive hit in the U.S.A., seven years after its original release. It is still a dance floor favourite whenever and wherever it gets played, for, as Marcia said, "nothing cannot stop that song."

In an inspired move in 1986, she teamed up with Donovan Germain's Penthouse Records. Germain, a keen student of Jamaican musical history, had contacted Sly Dunbar with a view to recording Marcia and was delighted to discover that she was keen to work: "Okay. Let's give it a try" and Germain not only recorded her in a solo capacity, but also teamed her up in a combination style with deejays of the moment, including Tony Rebel, Buju Banton and Cutty Ranks. The pair have continued to work together since and Marcia described Germain as the "most honest person in the business I have met."

Marcia continues to record and tour as a solo artist, as part of the Wailers Band and occasionally on Revival Shows with Bob Andy, and in 1992 she was presented with the JAMI Award at the Ward Theatre, Kingston for Best Female Vocalist. In 1993 she was awarded the Jamaican Order Of Distinction in recognition for her services to music. Her progression from Studio One child star to matriarch of Jamaican female vocalists, as a solo singer, as half of Bob & Marcia and as a member of The I-Threes has been inspirational throughout her career, and her reputation rests on her matchless achievements.

"When I was going to school I always sing 'Music Alone Shall Live."

And the music of Marcia Griffiths will live as long as music is listened to…

Play Me Sweet And Nice

The Heptones

‘Quite frankly there is absolutely no necessity for an introduction of the HEPTONES to you as I presume you already know all about the boys and their musical activities.’ Jackie Estick

And anyone with more than a passing interest in Reggae music knows and loves the Heptones for, as the foremost Jamaican vocal harmony trio ever, they unfailingly set the standards for everyone else to aspire to and to measure their own work by. There is no requirement for any retrospective attempts to belatedly bestow credibility on the Heptones for, as well as being uniformly excellent over the years, they also notched up Rocksteady hit after Reggae hit throughout the sixties and the seventies. Their Jamaican popularity was unprecedented and in the mid-seventies it seemed that the group must surely follow Bob Marley & the Wailers and Burning Spear into the realms of international stardom, but it was not to be. Amongst Jamaican music lovers their popularity is matched only by that of the Maytals, yet they still somehow remain relatively unknown and unappreciated by wider audiences and the Heptones' near faultless body of work over the years gives no indication as to why crossover success managed to somehow elude them.

The most influential and imitated Jamaican vocal trio ever began their working lives with Leroy Sibbles welding, Barry Llewellyn as a mechanic and Earl Morgan selling newspapers. The Heptones were originally formed in the Kingston ghetto of Trenchtown 'around 1958' by Earl and Barry and, in the early sixties, they met the third member of what was to become the all conquering threesome. Leroy had been the front man with a rival street corner group in Newland Town alongside two friends, Claire and Winston, and when the two groups clashed in a street corner singing contest, Leroy was so impressed with Earl and Barry that he immediately asked them to join with him. Leroy was already proficient on guitar through the tutoring of Brother Huntley and Brother Carrott, two Trenchtown Rastafarians, in whose yard the group would gather and write songs. Leroy became the group's lead singer, but both Barry and Earl could also sing lead and this varied versatility was vital to their overall sound. The membership of the group was still fairly fluid at this stage and Glen Adams was one of the early hopefuls who passed through their ranks. Glen subsequently left the Heptones to join the Pioneers and would go on to finally find fame as one of Lee Perry's Upsetters.

'We listened to the Drifters, the Platters, the Impressions and the Shirelles… those American groups were a big inspiration in Jamaica. In England my inspiration was the Beatles. If there was anyone I wanted to meet it was the Beatles.'Earl Morgan

In 1966, Sydney 'Luddy' Crooks of the Pioneers brought the group to the attention of Ken Lack the road manager for the Skatalites, who also ran the Caltone label. They recorded four songs for Caltone at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio and their first release, a bizarre version of Rossini's 'William Tell Overture', entitled 'Gunmen Coming To Town', proved to be a telling indication that this particular trio were not following anyone and certainly did not intend to do so either. 'I Am Lonely' was not a particularly big seller on its original release but would go on to become one of the most prized (and most expensive) records on the U.K. revival circuit in the late nineties.

One Sunday afternoon later that same year, the Heptones trod the familiar path down to Brentford Road to audition at Studio One in front of Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and B.B. Seaton. They passed this terrifying test and would remain with Coxsone for the next five years. They never looked back despite their first hit record, the risqué 'Fatty Fatty', being deemed too lewd for radio play:

'They decided to ban it in Jamaica and, when they did that, everybody wanted to hear it so it made the record one of the best sellers in Jamaica.'Earl Morgan

The Heptones left Studio One in 1971 after bitter and acrimonious disputes over financial matters. They had become an integral part of the Studio One set up with Leroy employed as both talent scout and session bass player, Barry as a session musician and Earl working in the pressing plant and also singing harmonies. The Heptones' contribution to the sound of classic Studio One music was immense and can never be overstated:

'Leroy played bass and Barry was in the studio playing organ and percussion. Most of the time I was in the factory… when I wasn't in the factory he had me singing harmonies.'Earl Morgan

Leroy, in particular, was vociferous in his condemnation of how he felt the Heptones had been treated during their time at Brentford Road, but Earl's attitude was more measured:

'I think if we had stayed with Coxsone we may have eventually gone on to become internationally famous but… it's one of them things.'Earl Morgan

Their next move was to Joe Gibbs and over the next two years, in a frenetic and prolific burst of creativity, they recorded for most of the producers of note in Kingston's teeming musical industry. Apart from the occasional foray into working on the side, the Heptones had previously remained loyal to Coxsone and Studio One:

'We started to harmonise for Duke Reid with John Holt on 'Let's Build Our Dreams'. Coxsone caught us recording and made us come down to his studio to do the same tune. And another time he caught us doing 'Lord Deliver Us' with Alton Ellis for Matador (Lloyd Daley) and made us do it for him.'Earl Morgan

They were now free to record for whoever required their services and the lessons that the Heptones had learnt at Coxsone's musical college were handed on to a new generation of producers and artists:

'…Then we went to Joe Gibbs… we worked with him for a while but the vibes changed so we moved on to Gay Feet. At that time we were freelance. After Coxsone we said anybody want us they can take us so we went from one producer to the next. We worked for so many producers…'Earl Morgan

In 1973 Leroy relocated to Canada, a move that led to the Heptones' first ever period of inactivity, but on his return to Jamaica in 1976 they began work with Lee Perry. The first fruit of this new partnership was 'Sufferer's Time', an aching lament that demanded equality for everyone in all things and their subsequent work for the Upsetter showcased their soaring harmonies against the perfect counterpoint of his dense, churning rhythms. The Lee Perry produced 'Party Time' album was released worldwide by Island Records alongside Harry Johnson's long player 'Night Food' later that year and these both belatedly helped to introduce the marvels of the Heptones to an wider audience. However, later that year during a tour with Bob Marley & the Wailers and the Maytals organised by Island Records Leroy left the group, weary of the strain of endless financial problems, and he returned to live in Canada and pursue a solo career.

'If Leroy had never left the Heptones we would have been even bigger worldwide…'Earl Morgan

Dolphin 'Naggo' Morris later took over as lead singer but, with a few notable exceptions, their records failed to scale the same heights as the Heptones' previous work. Reunited with Leroy in the early nineties the Heptones 'keep playing and recording and spreading the message'. Leroy's solo recordings, such as 1994's Bobby Digital production, 'Original Full Up' with Beenie Man, where he teaches musical history lessons about originating the bass line for the Studio One instrumental are proof, as if further proof was actually needed, that he has lost none of his astonishing talent:

'I never made much money from this oneBut I still feel good, good, good…' Original Full Up

'Full Up' eventually transformed into a worldwide hit for Musical Youth as 'Pass the Dutchie'. His sly misogyny, tongue always firmly in his cheek, was invariably delivered with a genuine underlying sensitivity. As Rocksteady merged into Reggae, his lyrics became more and more preoccupied with black self-determination and his songs of truth and rights equalled his songs of love. One of the most talented musicians of his generation his bass lines were sufficiently melodic and versatile to take any amount of different arrangements and they have gone on to become an integral part of Jamaica's musical vocabulary.

'The Heptones is not a one-man thing. The Heptones is a three man thing.'Earl Morgan

Earl's 'Pretty Looks Isn't All' is one of a handful of classic Reggae songs that will last for as long as the music is listened to, for Barry and Earl always bestowed far more than mere filling in the gaps behind Leroy's lead and they too have made notable contributions to the Heptones' canon. The Heptones' cover versions were inevitably invested with all the feeling and subtlety of their own songs and this set gathers together, for the first time, a comprehensive selection of the originals and covers that the Heptones produced away from Studio One. From their first forays into the business with Ken Lack to their later work with Niney the Observer it represents only a fraction of their incredible output for as Earl once memorably commented:

'The Heptones don't have a catalogue. The Heptones have a lionlogue…'Earl Morgan

HARRY HAWKE

Peace And Harmony: The Trojan Anthology

John Holt

John Holt was born in Greenwich Town, a seaside community that grew from the site of an 18th century British hospital to become part of the sprawl of Kingston. The beach and its fishing culture has been a consistent source of inspiration throughout his life, and a day on the sand, or perhaps out on the idyllic sea in a boat, remains his favourite way to pass the day. When he was young his suburban Kingston home had kindlier neighbourhoods than the ones accommodating today’s youth, who regularly appear in the local Gleaner involved in gun clashes and politically motivated killings.

'Growing up in Kingston I had a wonderful time,' he recalled recently to UK Reggae don, David Rodigan. 'Cos most of the people there would give you fruits. You didn't really have to buy much things as a little boy, you just go and pick some mangos or some oranges and stuff like that. It wasn't really rough for me, because my mother and father was very protective of me. I really grew up like a egg as far as my mother and father is concerned.

'I grew up around a lot of trade people. I usually keep friends that were a lot bigger than I am. I guess I was just trying to gain experience before my time. So I would listen to their experience and then I would sort of try to live up to their expectations as big and decent people.

'All of them things I had in my mind, and suddenly I decided to go to school, like leave from one school to another school, to try to become a doctor, then the music took me away again. And I went back into the music and I told my father I wasn't going back, so I just decided to stick to music.'

So it was a supportive environment for a youth who was an aspiring singer. And real success soon came from the 'Opportunity Hour' performances and his picture appearing the newspapers.

Holt cut his first tune, the poppy beat-ballad 'Forever I'll Stay', for influential producer Leslie Kong at Beverley's in 1962 (his mother negotiated his contract). Soon he was trying out for Coxsone Dodd's emerging Studio One studio, attending one of the Sunday morning auditions in front bassist Leroy Sibbles and keysman Jackie Mittoo. (In recent years, of course, Sibbles has been among his many support acts.)

Among those who would also eventually pass through Studio One's hallowed doors would be Bob Andy, of Bob and Marcia [Griffiths] fame, and after Holt had recorded a few tracks for Randy's Records, the two met in one of Jamaican music's all-time great harmony groups: The Paragons.

'I used to hang out on King's Street on a Friday and a Saturday,' said Holt, 'you know, as a young youth hanging out where it's really happening. So, while I was there I saw Tyrone Evans, he was introduced to me by a friend. He was in this Paragons group with Bob Andy, Tyrone and a couple of other guys - Howard Barrett wasn't in the Paragons during that time. So he heard about me, and Vere Johns opportunity hour and the songs I'd recorded, so he [Evans] asked me if I could even come and listen to them, to see if I would be interested in joining the group.

'So, I went right away, like something just hit me to go right away. So Tyrone myself went in there, and Bob Andy was there as well, so we were playing around the piano, and that's where it just started right there and then. Our first hit was 'Love At Last'. That was a slow song for Coxsone. That went number one on the RJR charts, and then we went on to do, I think we had about 11 number ones in a row. All these songs, the Paragons' songs, were number one songs, all because the effort we used to put in it, because there wasn't a day pass where we didn't rehearse for 10 minutes. We become very close to each other, so we were always together, together, together, day in, day out.'

Understandably, the young Andy saw the arrival of Holt, with his commanding presence and delicious voice, somewhat differently.

'I was aware that I was doing most of the work,' he said, 'because I had to choose the songs and play the piano for all four of us when we were rehearsing. I would be working out the harmonies and making sure the group stays together, you know. I assumed an overwhelming amount of responsibility at a very young age.

'And it was very heavy, because they reckoned that if a group had a strong lead singer, the group would be a force to be reckoned with. So we brought John Holt in, who had a name already; he was a very strong singer. The two other guys adored him, mostly Tyrone. Tyrone just fell sucker to the way John sings. Well now, he [Tyrone] refused to sing [lead on] any song. He said, 'I'm comfortable doing the harmonies.' But I said 'You know, I wouldn't like to spend the rest of my life Ooh-aahing.'

After two recordings, Andy quit to achieve his own great successes, also initially at Studio One, and the Paragons line-up settled as Holt, Tyrone Evans and Howard Barrett. Before the group split, as Evans and Barrett both pursued vocational scholarships in the USA, the Paragons set a benchmark for polished harmonies, brilliant interpretations and brilliant song-writing.

Holt's genius was behind most of their great originals, and the process behind creating 'Tide Is High', his formative song, is revealing. Originally, the first line he had penned was 'The time is hard but I'm holding on'.

'But I had a friend who was a fisherman,' he related afterwards, 'and one evening he went out with some pots to set in the sea to catch fish and stuff, and he came back real quick. I said, 'Why are you back already?' And he said to me, 'Bob, the tide is high, so I couldn't go out.' And it was during the time I was writing the song, and I always had my guitar with me, so I changed the line from 'the time is hard' to 'the tide is high'.

'I was trying to write the song about hard times, about the sea, and two people in love as well, or a man seeking to be friends with a woman. I could write four songs out of that one song now. I guess that's what made that song so heavy, you know. You can see that song from many different perspectives.'

Hit after hit followed until the Paragons folded, having already made inroads into the emerging UK Reggae market. When Holt struck out on his own that penetration reached new levels, with evergreen tracks like 'Love I Can Feel', 'Stick By Me', 'Ali Baba', 'Strange Things' and 'Jam In The Streets' still heard at parties to this day.

The tune that changed things forever for him, though, was the 1973 cover of country songwriter Kris Kristofferson's 'Help Me Make It Through The Night', and the album of the same name, which sold by the bucket-load to a mainstream audience as never before.

'I can remember when I was a younger youth than I am now,' mused Holt once, 'all of us used to go and record a song and all we wanted to do was mostly to hear it on the radio, hear your voice, and you could go to your friend and say, 'Hey that's me.' But as far as imagining anything like this would happen, I never see it at all, at all in my mind.

'Telling you the truth, it really did change my life musically for a while because, knowing to the fact that it's the first anything like this ever happen to Reggae music.'

The critical factor in the popularity of 'Help Me Make It' was the addition of top string orchestration to Reggae. This came about when an English producer called Tony Ashfield contacted Holt, professing him to be his favourite singer in the world. Ashfield had the idea to accompany that sublime vocal with the best symphonic string sound, and Holt liked the idea. Ashfield recruited string arranger Brian Rogers and matched him with Reggae guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith to create the right sound. The rhythms were laid down in Jamaica, the strings and voices dubbed in London.

'It was beautiful,' recalled Holt of his first hearing. The British public thought so too, and a brief, passionate love affair began between Holt and music buyers that only really faded once the heavier sounds of the late.

Credible tunes followed for a few years, particularly the underrated sides for Harry Mudie that include 'Time Is The Master'. But like many of his generation, Holt found himself out of fashion in the late Seventies as dancehall's harder edge cut in. It was at this time that he shocked conservative fans by quietly growing his locks and adopting Rastafarianism.

Although internationally, especially with the success of his current 'Reggae with strings' revival tours, it's the Paragons and early solo hits that the majority of fans want to hear, Reggae aficionados will be delighted that his 'comeback' tunes 'Sweetie Come Brush Me' and 'Wildfire' (in combination with his peers Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown) feature here.

But the tune that re-established Holt as a relevant artist in 1983 was the 'Police In Helicopter', a surprisingly militant pro-ganja tune cut for top early dancehall producer Henry 'Junjo' Lawes. Suddenly Holt, with his now grizzled dreadlocks had the look of an Old Testament prophet. He wrote the song while watching the police burn fields of marijuana and musing on the fact that there were so many other issues they should be tackling instead. He is an advocate of legalisation of the weed.

Holt's ability to appeal to the masses while retaining his credibility in this way has been remarkable. He has been a massive influence on succeeding singers - just listen to Sugar Minott, Tristan Palma or Anthony Johnson, amongst others - and deserves to retain his eternal place in the sun.

RICK GLANVILL

1000 Volts Of Holt

Gregory Isaacs

I recall the time I first met Gregory Anthony Isaacs. He had come to the Trojan offices to discuss signing a new contract and, in truth, it was not an auspicious start to our relationship. Even before sitting down to begin proceedings, his ice-cold manner made it abundantly clear he was in no mood for compromise and as we struggled to explain how we envisioned making best use of his wonderful music, he barely uttered a word, remaining impassive, simply nodding or shaking his head in response to our comments. By the end of that meeting, even though he had hardly spoken, he had exactly the deal he wanted. With the business of the day out of the way, I immediately discovered another side to this enigmatic Reggae superstar. Suddenly, gone was the hard-nosed businessman persona and in its place was an affable, charming man, who revelled in the attention bestowed upon him by the waiting female staff members outside. That afternoon, I realised the Cool Ruler and Original Lover Man titles bestowed upon him were much more than simple references to his musical repertoire.

Gregory was born in Fletcher's Land, Kingston on July 15th 1951 and spent much of his youth in the nearby Denham Town district, south of the infamous Trench Town district. There, he attended the local All Saints School before finding work as an apprentice carpenter, although additional income regularly came from selling weed on behalf of Bunny Wailer's father, Toddy Livingston. As with many of those housed in Kingston's underprivileged areas, Gregory was exposed to a myriad of musical styles throughout this time, developing a fondness for the records of leading American R&B stars, most notably Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and Sam Cooke, and inspired by their work, soon began impressing local audiences at school concerts and locals shows with his own performances.

By the close of the sixties, Gregory was finally ready to take his career up a notch and try his luck as a recording artiste. Collaborating with another aspiring singer, Winston Sinclair, he produced his debut disc, the melancholic 'Another Heartache', but while the single showed promise, distribution difficulties ensured it was destined for failure, although it was deemed worthy of release by Pama Records in the UK, who issued it on their Nu Beat subsidiary. Disappointed, but undeterred, the aspiring singer decided to change strategy, teaming up with two local vocalists, Bramwell Brown and a singer later recalled only as Penroe, to form a singing trio they named 'the Concords' - a name inspired by the recent unveiling of the famed supersonic passenger plane.

Shortly after the formation of the group, they auditioned for respected local producer, Rupie Edwards, who promptly arranged a recording session at which the trio cut a handful of sides that saw issue on his Success imprint. Although the releases were moderately successful, the group decided a switch to Prince Buster would enhance their chances of achieving major success, with the brief union spawning excellent '(Out On The) Dancing Floor'. But by the summer, the Concords were no more, and soon Gregory was back with Rupie Edwards, for whom he cut a number of fine romantically-tinged solo sides, of which 'Too Late' was the pick of the bunch, although even this superior piece of classic Reggae initially failed to generate much interest locally. The same could be said of later works for Sydney 'Luddy' Crooks as well as his own newly-formed African Museum record label, although success was not too far away and in the Spring of 1973, he finally broke into the big time with 'All I Have Is Love', a Phil Pratt-produced single that was to provide the springboard to further chart hits. A sublime version of Mike Williams' Soul rarity, 'A Lonely Soldier' for Clive Chin's Impact imprint and the equally impressive cut of 'Loving Pauper' (re-tilted 'I Am Alright') for Augustus 'Gussie' Clarke further enhanced his growing reputation.

In 1974, Gregory began an extremely productive working relationship with producer, Alvin 'G.G.' Ranglin, the arrangement commencing with 'Innocent People Cry', the popularity of which was duly eclipsed by the follow-up, 'Love Is Overdue', which sold an estimated 22,000 copies in Jamaica during the Spring months. The recording not only reinforced his standing as one of the island's premiere acts, it also marked the beginning of a creative period that produced an astounding body of work, which included his debut album, 'In Person' and the impressive semi-Dub track, 'Ba Da', produced by Winston 'Niney' Holness

As the seventies progressed, Gregory's work increasingly focused on serious social issues and while never abandoning matters of a more romantic nature, it was his more militant works that drew the greatest attention. In 1977, the magnificent 'Extra Classic' album illustrated just how far he had come as an artist and producer, with the collection including such masterpieces as 'Rasta Business', 'Black Against Black', the Lee 'Scratch' Perry-produced 'Mr Cop' and of course the best-selling title track. The same year saw the release of the Alvin Ranglin-produced 'Willow Tree' LP, a set that by contrast was entirely comprised of ballads, so reflecting the broad appeal of Gregory's work.

1978 saw the release of his next album, 'Mr Isaacs', a superior collection primarily comprised of songs cut at Channel One and Joe Gibbs' studio, produced by the singer in tandem with Ossie Hibbert, a session keyboard player-turned-producer with whom Gregory had first worked two years before - highlights included the magnificent 'Hand Cuff' (aka 'Hey Mr Babylon'), 'Set The Captives Free' and 'Slave Master'. Meanwhile, among his more successful singles during this time were such chart-toppers as 'Let's Dance', 'Never Be Ungrateful' and 'Mr Know It All', along with a number of superior collaborations with Sly & Robbie that included 'Soon Forward', 'Going Downtown' and 'Motherless Child'.

By this time, Gregory's popularity had attracted attention from a number of British-based companies, most notably Richard Branson's Virgin Records, who secured his signature on a two-year deal. Before the close of the decade, the label had released two collections of his works on their Front Line subsidiary, namely 'The Cool Ruler' and 'Soon Forward', both of which served to expose his talents to an international audience.

Following the expiration of his Virgin contract in 1980, Gregory signed for another leading UK-based independent, Charisma, who subsequently issued the outstanding 'The Lonely Lover' and 'More Gregory' albums on their newly-formed Pre imprint. He was now firmly established as one of the biggest acts in the Reggae world and a move to Island Records in '82 reinforced that status while also ensuring further global exposure of his work.

The crossover-hit, 'Night Nurse', provided the title of yet another best selling album and demonstrated his credentials as Bob Marley's heir apparent in terms of commercial appeal. But just as Gregory was making in-roads into the mainstream market, he was arrested and charged for firearms offences, leading to two months behind bars in the Kingston's notorious General Penitentiary. While the nature of the incident did little to further his career in the Pop world, it failed dent his popularity among Reggae fans, as reflected by the healthy sales of his 'Out Deh' album, issued by Island soon after his release.

Gregory continued his impressive run of major Reggae hits as the eighties progressed, with the self-produced 'Mi Come Again' and 'Tenement Yard' among his most popular works from the period, but in 1987, he was arrested once again for possession of cocaine. A period in rehab ensued, after which he resumed the business of making music, and there followed a series of impressive collections for Gussie Clarke, with whom he had first worked early the previous decade. Meanwhile, he continued to produce his own material and freelance for various producers, with Lloyd 'King Jammy' James, Donovan Germain, Roy Francis, Phillip 'Fattis' Burrell, Bunny Gemini and Joe Gibbs among those with whom he worked during the period.

He maintained a hectic work schedule into the nineties, touring and recording extensively, while also operating his 'Poor People Rights Studio' (P.P.R.S.) and African Museum record shop in Jamaica, but unable to fully kick his drugs habit, his health increasingly began to suffer, and while he persevered with his music career well into the 21st Century, the quality of his output proved variable. He seemed to be back on track with the Grammy-nominated 2008 album, 'Brand New Me', which he followed with the excellent 'My Kind Of Lady' collection and a collaboration with Zimbabwean Reggae singer, King Isaac, entitled 'Isaacs Meets Isaac'. But in 2009 he was diagnosed with cancer and despite a valiant battle against the effects of the disease, he finally succumbed to its effects on October 25th of the following year, leaving behind his wife June-Anne, mother, brother, twelve children, and six grandchildren.

During his astoundingly successful career, Gregory Anthony Isaacs' unmistakable tenor graced many hundreds of recordings, including some of the most romantic ballads and strident Roots Reggae ever created. Success had provided an escape route from the ghettos of Kingston and yet a refusal to abandon his origins ensured he maintained the common touch, conveying feelings of sufferation and love with an honesty and understanding that positioned him above the majority of his peers. As I witnessed for myself all those years ago, in reality as in his art and, he was both a ghetto don and a hopeless romantic - and he also happened to be one of greatest Jamaican performers the world will ever see.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

The Winner - The Roots of Gregory Isaacs

Joe Mansano

‘He was the oracle everyone went to when it came to Ska in the Brixton area’ – Graeme Goodall. The ‘oracle’ that the Doctor Bird label owner is referring to is Trinidad born Joel Mansano, or Joe, to his many friends - true pioneer of the London sound of Reggae, with a string of underground hits and a label named in his honour.

Joe takes up the story, 'I arrived in London in 1963 to study accounts. I joined the North London West Indian Association headed by Len Dyke. Not long after joining this Association, an election of officers was held and I won the post of Treasurer.'

At this time Joe was working for an American telephone company. After one of the Association's executive meetings, Len Dyke approached him about a business venture on which he was about to embark with another member, Dudley Dryden. The plan was to sell cosmetics to the growing West Indian population in North London, and Dyke wanted Joe on board. As a sideline they proposed to sell records to the music-hungry Jamaicans. Joe gave it some thought as he was fully employed at the time, but quickly decided to jump ship from the telephone company, and in May 1965 Dyke & Dryden opened its doors at 43 West Green Road, with Joe behind the counter.

'I must admit I knew nothing about cosmetics. I (had) acquired some knowledge of records going to parties and purchasing records… those early days were extremely difficult because we had very little stock. We had no account with the big record companies like EMI, RCA, Decca, and CBS etc. Consequently we lost a lot of sales, so we concentrated on the grass root records for survival - Ska, Rock Steady, Soul, Blue Beat'.

In 1966 Joe was invited to the giant EMI Records HQ to attend a course on how to manufacture records from recording to pressing, plus actually marketing your product to the record buying public.

'Once back at the shop I had a different outlook about the entire Reggae business… I started a promotion plan. Go to the studio, pay for 30 minutes studio time, then I would record and advertise the name of a popular DJ, say something like 'Blazing Fire will put fire in your wire' and 'by the flick of my wrist another musical twist', then the music from the (original) record would start'.

This one-off dub plate would be sold to the DJ, and as Joe continues, 'this method was an excellent way of advertising, not only the DJ's name, but it also gave this particular record a distinct advantage because it received more air play than the other records'. A clever trick to dub-on a spoken intro to a regular record but due to the DJ's sometimes being unable to afford the one-off acetate the idea was abandoned.

Next up, 'I would have in my possession boxes of the latest record imports, and go to as many parties as possible and have the DJ's play them and watch the reaction of the dancers on the floor. Depending on which record they enjoyed the most, I would take a note and re-order accordingly'.

As more West Indians settled into London life, so the parties spread along with the jubilant DJ's who chattered between and over the records, and Joe kept the supplies coming. In 1966 there was a big sound system showdown with Sounds coming from all over London to compete. Joe was one of the judges, as was sound engineer Graeme Goodall, who was soon to become a close friend of the man from Dyke & Dryden following this first meeting. Incidentally, Duke Roy from North London emerged the winner and staggered home with an immense trophy and jewel studded copper crown.

The same year saw the launch of Goodall's Doctor Bird imprint and the venue chosen was Dyke & Dryden's shop. 'There was no big launch of Doctor Bird', recalls Goodall, 'my plan was to hit it (the label) with the best tracks…I did and it worked. I was somewhat creative in marketing the product…. Weekly Gleaner, Sound System dances, blank pre-releases etc.'.

The Doctor Bird label went on to issue some sizzling Ska and latterly Rock Steady and finally Reggae sides through its short life span. Mindful of the success of Doctor Bird Records, Island MD David Betteridge dropped in on Joe late in 1967.

'At a luncheon meeting in the West End of London they (Island) revealed their plans where I would be offered my own record shop called 'Joe's Records' and that the operation would fall under the new company called Trojan Records - under the leadership of Mr. Lee Gopthal…'

It was tough for Joe to leave Dyke & Dryden, but soon Joe's Record Centre at 93 Granville Arcade, Brixton opened with a tag-line of 'specialists in blues, Rock Steady, jazz, pop, religious - also American imports, Jamaican imports, African highlife', in fact just about every style of music aside from classical, and no doubt should your desire be for a bit of Beethoven, Joe could procure that for you too.

Joe again, 'Some of the ideas I learnt during my course I began to implement them. I started my own Top 20 Reggae hits. I had special call cards printed with my photo attached to give to customers, dealers, dance promoters, DJ's etc. I even went a step further and had special pocket diaries printed with the name Joe's Record Centre engraved on the front cover' - so ephemera collectors watch out as that old diary could be a piece of Reggae-history.

The lessons learnt in marketing came in very handy as Joe was only one of many record shops vying for trade, '…many record shops carrying the same product surrounded me. I had to adopt different strategies in order to be competitive. One such method was to check which particular record was selling very fast. I would then check with my contacts at the wholesale outlets how much stock they had, in confidence of course, and if stocks were low, I would send my personal friends to buy out some, if not all, of the record from the shops around me. This way when the customer goes to the other shops they would be out of stock and I knew the dealer would take a long time to replenish their stock, but then my shop would still be in stock of the record thereby keeping my customers happy'.

Not only was Joe adept at shifting vast amounts of vinyl, but also his vision stretched further to actually producing music. His first production to appear on vinyl was 'Life On Reggae Planet' on the Blue Cat label in 1968, although Joe recalls recording his second release first - 'The Bullet'. Released the following year again on Blue Cat, it cracked the market for him. This solid instrumental was credited to London based Jamaican trombone player Rico Rodriguez, and sold by the cartload - 'I gathered a few musicians. I wanted a sound between a Calypso and Ska, so I hum what I wanted and came away with 'The Bullet'. It was on white (label) for five or six months before it went out on a label - then it started to really sell. It must've been two years (selling both) underground then on top', the 'on top' meaning to both West Indians and the white skinheads who were tuning into Joe's sounds by this time. 'It helped finance other sessions and bought me a new car', recalls Joe.

Trojan took note of his magic touch and inaugurated the 'Joe' label in May 1969 (with the label design by Joe) although the matrix number was in the DU series for the Duke label - DU23 'Friends & Lovers' by Patti La Donne backed with 'Hot Line' from the ambiguous Joe's All Stars was the debut. It wasn't a particularly strong seller, unlike the next Mansano offering on the label, DU24 - 'Hey Jude' b/w 'Musical Feet', again from Joe's All Stars.

Rob Bell, the Trojan manager at the time recalls that 'initial pressings would have been in the 750 to 1500 amounts…I think a couple of the Duke issues were decent sellers, DU24 (mentioned above), DU28, 'Battle Cry Of Biafra' and DU51, 'Gun The Man Down''.

Joe remembers 'Hey Jude', '…the people would listen to the Beatles original and then dance to the Reggae version. There was a white guy who played horn (on 'Hey Jude') - I can't remember his name - and he just kept on playing, right at the end he wouldn't stop - just kept on playing'.

Joe's main session band was the Rudies, and occasionally the Cimarons, with additions like Rico and the long-forgotten horn player just mentioned. DJ chores were normally by the chirpy Dice The Boss aka Pama Dice, or on one occasion Baba Dice. Born Hopeton Reid, the former started life working as a live DJ for Prince Buster in Jamaica before relocating to London and persuading Joe to give him a try on the microphone. The 'Pama' reference is apparently nothing to do with Pama Records, although Joe no longer recalls why Dice had this strange addition to his name.

The main studios used were Chalk Farm run by Vic Keary and Graeme Goodall's studio. Goodall's preferred session group were Symarip / the Pyramids, headed by Monty Neysmith, whilst Chalk Farm was home to the Rudies and the Cimarons. With regard to the sessions, 'it was a close circuit of people and I would book two hours, paying a session fee of £20 per man. Once the track I wanted was done I would call people in to record and use up the time. I would be on the consol and tell the engineer what to do. Much of the work was spontaneous, although sometimes the night before I would have it in my head and I'd tell the musicians the bass line etc'.

This using-up of the session time did result in some interesting productions, such as 'In Loving Memory (Of Don Drummond)', credited to Clive Williams & the Heat Wave, but actually Dice, Rico and a session band. It was issued on the little known Rock Steady Revolution label in 1969. Clive Williams was a session player and the 'Heat Wave' suspiciously sound like the Cimarons in disguise.

Joe's next project was the rude 'Brixton Cat', which Joe clarified as today meaning 'Brixton Pussy', with no need for further explanation! 'People went wild at parties (when it was played). What made it even more puzzling was that this work was done right here in London…to my great surprise one morning on the breakfast programme Tony Blackburn played 'Brixton Cat'…and that day the shop was packed'. One can be sure that Tony Blackburn and the BBC had no idea what Dice was chattering about or the record would've shot into the reject pile along with the infamous 'Wet Dream' from Max Romeo a year earlier.

Trojan were so impressed with the sales of 'Brixton Cat' that they asked Joe if he was interested in fleshing out the hit single into an album of the same name. He readily agreed and the album appeared late in 1969, catalogue number TBL106, and resplendent with a shot of Joe's former sister-in-law Peggy Jackson, back to camera, gazing at Brixton market on the sleeve's front. The back showed a snappy-dressed Joe looking every bit the businessman in a three-piece suit - a picture that he took himself.

In a singles driven market the album sold enough copies to please Joe's masters at Trojan with much of the sales being taken up by the new skinhead Reggae lovers. As was Joe's custom, he would record a basic rhythm track and then over dub vocals or instruments to create different cuts. An obvious example is 'Rico's Torpedo' which is a straight horn cut on the rhythm included on the 'Brixton Cat' album, Joe then grabbed Dice and laid a DJ piece - 'Tea House From Emperor Roscoe' and a solid instrumental cut - 'Tea House', the former gaining issue on his Joe label, while the latter popped up on the very obscure 'Reggae' label, run by Phil Chen who was also bass player in Jimmy James & the Vagabonds, before going on to higher heights with Rod Stewart's band. Chen also worked closely with Robert 'Dandy' Thompson, another founding UK Reggae-recorder, and the Rudies band.

For inspiration, Joe would often draw from every day experiences such as his track 'The Thief', where a guy stole a pile of records from Joe's shop then had the audacity to come back for more and was luckily recognized. Hence the startling cries on the record of 'thief - damn thief'. The bizarrely named track 'Tea House' came about again from a very mundane angle, 'we had the session and went for a cup of tea to the tea house, so we called it that'.

Perhaps one of the most debated questions in Reggae circles is the old chestnut as to who was King Horror. Joe tells us who his King Horror was, 'there was a chap in the band called Lloydie, who was, shall we say, not very pretty, so we called him King Horror, he was one of my DJ's. Lloyd The Matador was his name - Lloyd Campbell - and as the Hammer horror and Dracula thing was very big at the time I cut the 'Dracula Prince Of Darkness' track with Lloydie'.

January 1970 saw the last Joe release with a Duke matrix, and in March of the same year a new brown and yellow label emerged, still with the basic layout of the original green and silver Duke/Joe but with that all important JRS matrix. Now Joe really did have his own semi-independent label. After some interesting releases on Joe's new imprint, May 1970 saw JRS9, the very popular 'Skinhead Revolt', which '…was a track created for the skinheads to dance - they had a very special way they dance to this song'. The track commented on the Paki-bashing fad that was prevalent at the time.

By Spring 1970 Joe saw his new market clearly - the white skinheads…

'There was a white skinhead called Shaun who used to help sell records in the shop, and also helped with the sound in the studio. He would say 'no, alter that or bring that in' to make the sound right for the skinheads. I always felt very safe with the skinheads and shaped the sound for them'.

Joe, with the help of skinhead Shaun, knew what sound he wanted and Trojan left him to it as Rob Bell explains, 'Trojan's policy with pretty much all the producers was to let them have their head. If something was presented that was determined to have some commercial potential there might have been some consensual post production work, but I don't think anything like that happened with Joe Mansano product'. The normal postproduction work Rob was referring to was strings and/or orchestration to sweeten the sound and make it chart friendly, certainly something that Joe's grass roots sounds didn't need.

But it wasn't all skinhead sounds Joe recorded. He always had an ear for the more mature audience. with tracks such as the melodic 'Since I Met You Baby' from Paula Dean, or. to give her real name, Persis Jackson. The young Jamaican lady was Joe's former wife and she actually introduced the Trinidadian to Jamaican music way back when he first arrived in the UK and started going out with her.

Joe's shop had become a hotbed for Jamaican music and regularly received phone calls from leading music papers like Record Retailer and Record Mirror. enquiring which were the best of the new Reggae releases so they could update their charts. Plus UK and JA artists and producers dropped by with straight-off-the-press new records seeking Joe's advice as to whether the latest release would be a good seller. By this time Joe ran a second shop just round the corner from Joe's Record Centre that specialized in retailing the records from the Pama group of labels.

As the skinhead boom died and Trojan slowed down Joe received less attention from the label until one day 'I was summoned to the head office at 12 Neasden Lane and was told that the shop I operated would be closing down and that the company would be going into liquidation…however Lee Gopthal visited me and indicated that as compensation he was prepared to ask the landlord to give me preference to continue the rent'. Hence the ties with Trojan were severed and Joe went out on his own starting two labels - an updated 'Joe' design for love songs and 'Arrow' for DJ work.

In 1974 Joe was perturbed to hear his records were being pirated in the USA and a trip to the Bronx revealed unauthorized pressings of a number of his productions in a record shop. So too were his records pressed in Jamaica without his knowledge, with the most easily found being 'The Trial Of Palmer Dice', (note the spelling) incorrectly backed with 'I Don't Want To Cry' by Winston Groovy and released on the Jackpot label. The Groovy tune is actually his hit, 'Please Don't Make Me Cry'.

As the 1970's moved on and the roots sound came in Joe, who never liked the 'roots or Rasta stuff', continued to issue music for the mature audience along with running his shop until 1976 when he discovered Trinidad had no Reggae outlets. With his usual acute business sense Joe relocated back to his homeland and took over as manager of Sports & Games and installed a Reggae record department, and thus became the first supplier on the island. The Reggae department was an instant success and brought the sound of Jamaica to Trinidad in a big way.

But what of the historic recordings made in London almost thirty-six years ago? 'I come from Calypso country - so there's lots of kinda Calypso coming through - I hear Reggae and Calypso - the feel of Trinidad'. Which is certainly true as the Joe Mansano mix is like no other sound - 'too advanced for its time' concludes Joe.

The oracle has spoken.

MICHAEL DE KONINGH

Joe The Boss: The Productions of Joe Mansano

The Paragons

‘Let’s Go And Have Some Fun, On The Beach, Where There Is A Party’… Any good dictionary defines a ‘Paragon’ as ‘a model of excellence and perfection’. This being so, the young men who came together in the mid 60s, to form what became one of Jamaica’s premier singing groups of all time, could hardly have selected a more appropriate moniker.

From 1966 to 1969 approximately, the Paragons were indeed a 'model of excellence and perfection' as far as fans of harmony and melody are concerned. Their career lasted more than those three years, of course. The original quartet came together in the early 60s, and line-ups that centred on the overdubbed harmonies of one or more of its members endured until the mid 1980s. But it is the classic Paragons' personnel of John Holt, Tyrone Evans and Howard Barrett that is both best remembered and best loved by collectors of rock steady, and it is this line up that those collectors immediately think of whenever the group's name crops up. As is the case with many of reggae's greatest names, the genesis of the Paragons can be traced back to the famous 'Opportunity Hour' talent contests that took place in Kingston, under the supervision of a man whose importance to the evolution of Jamaican music can never be underestimated, the late Vere John. 'Opportunity Hour' was a weekly live event, which began in the 1950s and ran for years. It provided the jumping off point for the professional careers of - to name just a few - Derrick Morgan, Alton Ellis, Rico Rodriguez, Eric Monty Morris, Laurel Aitken, Jimmy Cliff and two young men whose destinies would become intertwined a few years after they had both been 'Opportunity Hour' winners - John Holt and Howard Barrett. Both Holt and Barrett were already on the hopeful road to solo stardom when the Paragons formed, and neither was a part of the original line up. Indeed, 'Johnny' Holt had already recorded material for Leslie Kong, which had been released on Kong's famous 'Beverley's' imprint, before the Paragons came together. Early Jamaican music history being what it is, i.e. often sketchy at best, there are no records to confirm exactly when the Paragons did form. But, based on the recollections of founder member Keith Anderson (of whom more later) it would seem that the Binders, as they were originally known, formed c. 1963, with an original line up of Anderson, Garth 'Tyrone' Evans, Junior Menz and Leroy Stamp (or Stamps, as he's sometimes credited). It was the group's intention to come across as Jamaica's equivalent of the world-famous Drifters, themselves a quartet with a succession of strong lead singers backed by impeccable harmony vocalists. This they did, for a couple of years, before the departure of Menz, to the newly-formed Techniques, and Stamp, to obscurity, brought two new members into the fold… The group was still performing as the Binders when first John Holt and then Howard Barrett were recruited, to replace the outgoing Stamp and Menz respectively. The members soon decided that a change of personnel was a good excuse for a change of name, and the Binders became the Paragons in 1964 - possibly in honour of the great New York doo-wop group of that name, who had disbanded by the early 1960s. The Paragons were as much in the thrall of the Drifters as the Binders had been - indeed, at their very first recording session in 1965, they cut a splendid version of the American group's recent Atlantic recording, 'Follow Me'. Their vocal prowess brought them to the attention of Jamaica's top record men and, specifically, to the late Coxsone Dodd, for whom they successfully auditioned in '65. Realising that their style was totally unsuited to the fast pace of ska, Dodd cut them as a soul group and while their Supreme label singles, such as 'Love At Last' and 'Good Luck And Goodbye' didn't sell spectacularly, they gave the Paragons a solid foundation on which to build their career. Unfortunately for the other members, Keith Anderson had decided that he wanted to start his own career, and so it was that the soon-to-be-rechristened 'Bob Andy' quit the Paragons to go solo and to make, what are in this writer's opinion, some of the greatest records that any Jamaican artist has ever made, or ever will make. Although rocked by Bob's departure, the three remaining Paragons decided to carry on as a quartet and set about finding a replacement for their outgoing colleague. While they were doing so, they adapted their harmonies to a trio format, and soon found that it was more appealing (not to say more economical) singing this way. Thus it was that the warm tenor vocals of Evans and Barrett became the 'sandwich' to the 'meat' that was, and still remains, the wonderful voice of John Holt. The three piece Paragons decided to forego their Drifters obsession, and to give the group an identity that was uniquely theirs. Holt had begun to write strong original material, and of his early efforts the song that the group thought had the best potential was 'Happy Go Lucky Girl'. After rehearsing it meticulously, they set out to audition their original song for the island's leading producers. Having recorded for Studio One and finding it not to their financial advantage, the Paragons presented themselves at Duke Reid's yard. Reid, who was personally overseeing his auditions that day, nearly missed out on the act that would be a major component of his forthcoming success as the greatest producer of the rock steady era. John, Tyrone and Howard performed 'Happy Go Lucky Girl' for him, but the Duke was not impressed, and sent the group away. As they were leaving the area, it's said that they bumped into one of Reid's most trusted employees who, noting their dejected looks, asked them why they were down. One explanation later, Reid's man marched them back to the Duke, who agreed to take another listen. By this time, he had learned that they were the same Paragons who had already been recorded by his (sometimes not so friendly) rival Coxsone, and that may well have influenced his decision to change his mind and record 'Happy Go Lucky Girl' as the first single from the classic Paragons line up. It was a decision that he would never regret. The Paragons' arrival at Treasure Isle coincided with the evolution of ska into rock steady - and, of course, their warm harmonies were as perfectly suited to the new style as they would have been totally unsuited to the earlier one. Although it still bore a ska influence, 'Happy Go Lucky Girl' was undisputedly one of the first rock steady hits, and a very big one at that. Almost overnight, the Paragons became a major name in Jamaican music. The fact that they could write good original songs - or, in some cases, cleverly adapt bits of existing ones, to make them sound like originals - meant that they were never more than three minutes away from their next hit. And for the next couple of years, they turned out plenty… Still with a slight ska feel, they followed up 'Happy Go Lucky Girl's massive success with the double dynamite of 'On The Beach' and 'Only A Smile'. (If I need to tell you about the breathtaking brilliance of these recordings, you have obviously come to the wrong sleevenote). This vinyl 'model of excellence and perfection' kicked off a run of unbeatable Paragons 45s, all released on Reid's Trojan and Treasure Isle labels and all worthy of the regard in which they're perennially held. In short order, the world was introduced to the delights of 'The Tide Is High', 'Mercy Mercy Mercy', 'Wear You To The Ball', 'Silver Bird', 'My Best Girl', 'Riding On A Windy Day', 'The Same Song' and the group's memorable adaptation of the Beatles' 'Hard Days Night' gem, 'I'll Be Back', which they (possibly mistakenly) called 'I Want To Go Back'. Incredibly, all of these greats - including those mentioned earlier - were released in less than 18 months. In the times we now live in, when it takes most artists three years to make an album that ends up sounding exactly the same as their previous one, this is almost unthinkable. It is, of course, a measure of how strong these recordings are, that so many were able to return to the top of the Jamaican charts at the start of the 1970s, when used as the sound beds for many of the greatest of U Roy's Treasure Isle treats, including 'Flashing My Whip' ('Only A Smile'), 'On The Beach', 'The Tide Is High', 'Happy go Lucky Girl' and 'Wear You To The Ball'. Daddy U Roy DJ'd over many wonderful Duke Reid riddims, but it's on those of the Paragons that you'll find him at his inarguable finest… In the middle of this hit run, they also released what would be not only their debut album, but also one of the first albums to ever bear the Treasure Isle logo. 'On The Beach With The Paragons' presented an all round musical picture of where the trio was at, mixing hits with bluesy ballads and even throwing in a couple of rock steady versions of calypso warhorses, in an early attempt to appeal to what we would now call the 'Big People' market. Even though, with hindsight, collectors would probably have preferred a bit more of the former and a bit less of the latter, both 'Island In The Sun' and 'Yellow Bird' were extremely well done and, in retrospect, both show that John Holt already had one eye on a side of his career that would result in the enormously successful 'Volts Of Holt' series in the mid 1970s. 'OTBWTP' was a big selling album that, like almost all of their 45s, also received a UK release. Unfortunately the big sales were confined exclusively to Jamaica - copies of the original UK release, on Doctor Bird, are so rare as to be almost non-existent. However, through the miracle of CD we can - and are most happy to - bring you its 10 tracks in their original order of release, followed immediately by everything else that the Holt/Evans/Barrett trio cut for Duke Reid, during its all too brief existence. The Paragons recorded exclusively for the Duke until 1968, when they were wooed back to Studio One to make a small number of seminal sides including 'My Satisfaction', 'Darling I Need Your Loving' and 'Danger In Your Eyes', featuring a rare lead from Garth Evans who, for the purposes of that recording, was billed not as Tyrone but as 'Don'. Sadly, contractual difficulties prevent our bringing you this material, but there's compensation galore in the form of both sides of a self-financed rock steady classic 'Memories By The Score' / 'Number One For Me', which the trio put out on their own label, shortly after exiting Treasure Isle and before going back to Brentford Road. Other great rock steady sides from this 'freelance' period that are also featured here include another immortal, self produced, double-sider which pairs their cover of the Four Tops' 'Left With A Broken Heart' with a brilliant adaptation of Garnet Mimms' 'A Quiet Place' that became 'Got To Get Away' (a.k.a. 'Man Next Door'). No less enjoyable is the big, brassy 'Talking Love' - a German song that the group almost certainly learned from a recording made in the UK, in 1967, by Engelbert Humperdinck - which found the Paragons in the Federal studios as a group for the first time. The two Paragons sides that were cut at Studio One by independent producer Lloyd 'Matador' Daley also stem from this time, although these ears detect only the presence of a double-tracked John Holt on 'Equality And Justice' and 'You Mean So Much To Me'. Both are fine recordings, in any event! However, all this activity also coincided with sad news for Paragons fans. The group was about to break up. John Holt was ready to step into the massively successful solo career that he has sustained to this day. The two remaining Paragons brought in their former Treasure Isle label mate, Vic Taylor, but his stay was only temporary and he soon went back to a solo career, before eventually becoming one of the singers fronting Byron Lee's Dragonaires. Before any further action could be taken, Howard Barrett decided to join the migration of Jamaican singers and musicians to North America, which left Tyrone Evans to briefly reunite with Bob Andy before teaming up with Bruce Ruffin and an as yet unnamed third vocalist to record as the Shades. After a handful of excellent 45s for Winston Riley's Techniques imprint, the Shades disbanded, with Evans pursuing a brief solo career under the supervision of Leslie Kong before he too relocated to the USA around 1970. Other than a clumsily spliced 'Paragons Medley' that Duke Reid released under John Holt's name in 1971, at the height of the short lived medley craze, the world heard no more from the Paragons until 1974 - by which time its former lead vocalist Mr. Holt had moved from local to international star. But it was in '73 that the name of the Paragons once again graced its spiritual home, with a couple of Duke Reid 45s that were among the last to be produced by the great man, who was to die in 1975 from cancer. The circumstances behind the session that produced 'Black Birds Singing', 'Always', 'Mother Nature', 'The World Is A Ghetto' and 'Unforgettable You' are unclear. All of these tracks feature the excellent lead vocals of one Rosalyn Sweat (or Sweet, as it's sometimes been printed) backed by a line up of 'Paragons' that, in reality, seem to be the many voices of Tyrone Evans, harmonising with each other, and almost certainly are. Whoever was in the group, it was nice to see their name back in the limelight for a short while, and their titularly-amended version of the Beatles' 'Blackbird' was a hit of sizeable proportions among reggae buyers, both here and 'back a yard'. Its success led to a second Paragons album for Treasure Isle, a mere 7 years after the first, which featured the Rosalyn Sweat tracks intermingled with 7 rock steady gems from the 'real' Paragons, a couple of which were not originally released at the time of their recording. (Unfortunately, they were the unwelcome recipient of some heavy handed 'updating', via drum overdubbing and some poor attempts to make 'fake stereo' out of otherwise pristine mono masters). The follow up single 'Mother Nature' did not sell anywhere near as well as 'Black Bird Singing' and, given that Treasure Isle was essentially winding down at the time, there were no more sessions on Bond Street. Tyrone Evans double tracked himself again for another independently funded project, 'Dance With Me' and subsequently retreated back to New York, where he occasionally recorded and released material for the remainder of the decade, mostly for the late Brad Osbourne's Clocktower imprint. Nothing more was heard from or about the Paragons - although plenty was heard about John Holt, of course - until late 1980, when smoothed-out proto-punks Blondie stumbled upon 'The Tide Is High' and turned their anaemic version of the song into one of the biggest international hits of the year. As well as providing a nice windfall for the three group members, all of whom were registered as its composers, it also provided the impetus for an Island Records-financed reunion of John, Tyrone and Howard that resulted in the 'Sly And Robbie Meet The Paragons' album in 1981. For it, the trio did over 10 of their biggest rock steady hits in a pleasing enough manner, but the album did not sell as well as everyone probably hoped and expected it would, and there was no follow up. However, Garth Aldington Donahue Evans had got the bit between his teeth again - and with the Paragons brand being already 'reborn', he was anxious to carry its rebirth forward. Hooking up with the ever-opportunistic Bunnie Lee, and with the benefit of more judicious multi-tracking, Evans and, occasionally, Barrett, went on to make further Paragons albums during the early 1980s. The first of these, 1982's 'The Paragons Return', is actually far better than the Sly & Robbie set of the previous year. Many of its best tracks are solo Evans sides that were recorded at Lloyd Barnes' claustrophobic Bullwackies Studio in New York (indeed, the album was issued on Wackies in the USA, while appearing on Lee's ever-present Jackpot imprint in Jamaica). Of these, the best by far has to be the gorgeous 'Love Vibration', which was one of the big selling UK 12"s of the year when it appeared on the Carib Gems imprint, and which is now much coveted in its rare Jamaican Wackies 7-inch pressing. The album was rounded out with remixed versions of the original 'Left With A Broken Heart' and 'Man Next Door'/'Got To Get Away' - thus legitimising the illustration of John Holt on the sleeve. The set appears here in its entirety, and glad we are to have it on board. Less than a year later, Lee issued 'Heaven And Earth' - or, as it was known in some territories, 'The Paragons Now' - which once again featured the many voices of Evans and Barrett. The musical backup was largely the work of Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare and the rest of Skin, Flesh and Bones, hiding behind Lee's regular billing of 'The Agrovators' while the material, largely of a move conscious nature, was primarily self composed (sometimes with a mysterious credit to 'Susie Wong' added to the names of Barrett and Evans). Engineered by King Jammy (then still a 'Prince'!) and Phillip Smart, It had a lot going for it and still does. But the Paragons had, by then perhaps tried one comeback too many and sales were tepid to say the least… Tyrone Evans subsequently returned to New York, to make some excellent recordings for Studio One, mostly singing over Coxsone's inexhaustible supply of old rhythms. He also began work on a number of projects with Lloyd Barnes, but sadly never saw their release, the singer passing away in October 2000 after losing his battle with cancer. John Holt's ongoing career, meanwhile, needs little further discussion here, other than to comment on the fact that he sounds as good now as he did then, while Howard Barrett went back to making liquorice allsorts and was never heard of again. (At least part of the latter statement is true…) Forty years after the earliest of our featured recordings were made, The Paragons remain the 'model of excellence and perfection' that will always find them ranked with the very best of the very best.TONY ROUNCE

On The Beach With The Paragons

Lee 'Scratch' Perry

For many Jamaican music purists, Reggae reached its creative its peak in the mid to late seventies; a period that witnessed the rise of the socio-centric, quasi-religious stylings of Roots, the development of various new playing techniques and the continual evolving sounds of Dub. And at the epicentre of each of these progressions was an enigmatic record producer widely acknowledged as a genius. And it is that man and his groundbreaking work during this golden age that provides the focus of this collection. He is of course Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

As befitting someone whose true character remains a mystery to the world at large, the details surrounding Scratch's early life are sketchy and often contradictory. His birth date has been given as anywhere between 1936 and 1939, while the exact location of this momentous event is equally vague. Depending on which narration you choose to believe, he was born either in the small town of Kendal in the parish of Hanover, or somewhere in the northeast region of St. Mary's. Of his formative years, he has divulged almost nothing, other than making the claim that he was a champion domino player and an equally talented dancer.

What is known is that by the late fifties, Scratch was in Jamaica's bustling capital, Kingston where he found gainful employment running errands for Clement Seymour Dodd, owner of the island's largest sound-system, 'Sir Coxson's Downbeat'. And as his employer moved into producing recordings by local talent, his own creative talents became increasingly utilised. Soon his jobs included discovering and auditioning new acts and arranging recording sessions as well as writing and recording songs himself. His first single, 'Old For New' saw issue sometime in 1963 and it was followed soon after by 'Chicken Scratch', the title of which provided the moniker by which he is still known.

Throughout the early sixties, Scratch remained a key figure in Dodd's expanding operations, engineering countless recording sessions and performing on over fifty different songs that saw issue on the producer's various imprints. But by 1966, a dispute over royalties brought his relationship with Dodd to an abrupt end and he began freelancing for a number of his former employer's rivals. Those to immediately benefit from his fallout with Dodd included Karl 'J.J.' Johnson, Prince Buster for whom he engineered sessions and cut material as an artist before becoming an in-house producer for George Benson & Garnet Hargreaves' W.I.R.L. Records. Surprisingly, his sojourn with the company lasted just a matter of months, during which time he had failed to provide them with a hit of note, but W.I.R.L.'s loss was Joel Gibson's' gain. Gibson (aka Joe Gibbs) was a relative novice to the industry, having only recently launched his own label; a decision prompted by the growing demand for locally produced singles at his Kingston-based electrical repair shop and record outlet. Having heard of Scratch's availability, Gibson offered the out-of-work producer a position with his newly launched Amalgamated label, a proposal that was duly accepted, with the arrangement soon proving beneficial to both parties. Throughout the tail-end of 1967 and into the following year, Amalgamated grew into one of the island's most successful independent music enterprises, with Errol Dunkley, the Mellotones, the Versatiles and the Pioneers among those to enjoy hit singles supervised by the gifted Mr Perry.

Aside from Scratch's developing talents as a producer, he also continued to voice his own songs, the most notable being 'I Am The Upsetter', an acerbic swipe at former employer, Coxson Dodd that also provided the first reference to the nick-name by which he would later be known. After a number of months of working relatively harmoniously with Gibson, the pair fell out, their relationship ending acrimoniously, with money yet again the root cause. The experience convinced Scratch that fulfilling his creative and financial potential would require complete independence and after brief spells working with Clancy Eccles and Dorothy Barnett, he formed Upsetter Records with Lynford 'Andy Capp' Anderson and Barry Lambert, two respected sound engineers he had befriended while at W.I.R.L.

In the summer of '68 the first single on the new imprint saw issue: a laudable Rock Steady reworking of the Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters' R&B hit, 'Honey Love', performed by a local singer called Burt Walters. The disc failed to garner much in the way of interest and its failure prompted the withdrawal of Scratch's partners from the new enterprise. Undaunted, he continued alone, cutting the ground-breaking 'People Funny Boy', another satirical swipe at a former employer, with Gibson the latest to suffer a verbal assault. With its unusual, jumpy feel and over-dubbed crying effects, it was the most original Jamaican-produced single of its time and became an instant hit, selling in excess 60,000 copies on the island and thereby assuring Scratch's long-term future as a producer.

Over the ensuing months, he consolidated his position as one of Kingston's most up-and-coming independent music makers, his reputation bringing him to the attention of Trojan Records in London, which, after securing rights to his output, launched its own version of his Upsetter label. The UK company's faith in his talents was almost immediately rewarded, as 'Return Of Django', just the second release on the subsidiary, became a sizeable British hit. An irresistible Rock Steady instrumental version of Fats Domino's 'Sick And Tired', led by the unaccredited Val Bennett and the Upsetters, the single broke into the British charts in the Autumn of 1969, spending a total of 15 weeks on the chart and peaking at number five, so becoming one of the best selling Jamaican-produced records of all-time.

The record's success helped finance the opening of Scratch's own record retail outlet, the Upsetter Record shop, situated at 36 Charles Street, in the heart of downtown Kingston. The store quickly became a regular meeting place for local talent, while its locality enabled the producer to keep his ear to the ground regarding musical tastes and trends. This, allied to his irrepressible talent, provided him with an edge over his competitors and record sales both locally and across the Atlantic remained healthy, with the Bleechers, Busty Brown and Dave Barker among the small circle of artists benefiting from Scratch's unerring skill as a producer. Around this time, Scratch was also instrumental in reviving the flagging fortunes of Bob Marley & the Wailers, producing a number of seminal recordings by the group, including the original versions of 'Duppy Conqueror', 'Small Axe' and 'Keep On Moving'. Among the other performers to benefit from the producer's talents during this period were singers Keith 'Junior' Byles, Little Roy and Leo Graham, vocals groups such as the Heptones, Carlton & the Shoes and the Gatherers, plus a number of DJs, whose number included Dennis Alcapone, Big Youth, I Roy, U Roy and an up-and-coming youth who recorded under the name of Dillinger.

By 1973, Scratch was comfortably established as one of Jamaican music's leading players, having produced a series of sizeable hits for his Upsetter, Spinning Wheel and Justice League imprints. But for all his success, he remained unfulfilled creatively, unable to fully develop his ideas because of the restrictions of studio time. So it was that he arranged for construction work to begin on a studio of his own, situated behind his house in Cardiff Crescent in Washington Gardens. Once the building was complete, he began installing the best affordable recording equipment available and by the close of the year, the newly named 'Black Ark' studio had been furnished with a four-track quarter-inch TEAC 3340 tape machine, a silver Alice board mixing desk, a Grantham spring reverb and tape echo unit, a Marantz amplifier and a collection of assorted instruments. Over the years that were to follow, all were put to good use as Scratch embarked on a one-man his crusade to push the boundaries of Reggae beyond their conceived limits. This compilation highlights some of the best of this material that originally saw issue as 7" singles on his Jamaican labels.

As the Seventies wore on, Scratch's behaviour became progressively erratic. Increasingly distracted from his work by his excessive lifestyle and disillusioned by both the music business and his life in Jamaica, he spelt prolonged periods away from his studio and as 1978 drew to a close, his output had diminished to little more than a trickle. Others noted how the Ark itself had become a reflection of his troubled state of mind, its walls covered in graffiti, which became progressively more illegible as the producer painted 'x's over his scrawls. Eventually, the studio had ceased operations and while subsequent spells in Holland and England helped clear his mind of the fog that had increasingly clouded his thoughts, once he was back in Kingston, Scratch fell back into old ways and resumed the gradual destruction of his once beloved studio.

Early in 1981, Chris Blackwell helped arrange a trip to New York for the troubled producer, paying an advance of $25,000 to enable Black Ark's reconstruction, but although the visit did result in his return to music making (as he began working closely with local white Reggae bands the Terrorists and the Majestics), the money was soon spent. Upon his return to Kingston in the summer, Scratch began working on a new album with engineer Errol 'E.T.' Thompson and the Professionals band at Joel Gibson's recording facility in the Duhaney Park district, while soon after, the Majestics arrived from New York to work with him on a series of tracks at Dynamic studio that would later comprise the 'Mystic Miracle Star' LP.

The projects proved a false dawn and soon any sense of renewed enthusiasm had waned. Any Hopes of new material emerging had all but dissipated when, in the summer of 1983, Black Ark was all but obliterated by a raging fire, the producer later taking credit for its combustion. Its sudden and dramatic end marked the sad end of an era, but what had once been a sanctuary had increasingly become regarded as a prison, and with its destruction came liberation.

A move away from Jamaica marked a new chapter in Scratch's life. At Chris Blackwell's Compass Point in the Bahamas he finally finished work on the material cut with the Professionals two years earlier - the result being the producer's final Island album, 'History, Mystery, Prophesy'. There followed a prolonged period in London, where he worked with leading Reggae producers, Neil 'Mad Professor' Fraser and Adrian Sherwood, then in 1989 he settled in Switzerland with his new partner, Mireille. There have since been numerous tours and new albums, including his Grammy winning 2002 collection 'Jamaican E.T.', and while we can be grateful that he still undoubtedly still has much to contribute musically, it is impossible not to rue the passing of Black Ark, where for a few glorious years he created some of the most original and challenging work ever to see issue in Jamaica.

LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT

Dub-Triptych

Zap Pow

Throughout the seventies, Zap Pow was arguably Jamaica’s most successful Reggae band, with no less than four No. 1 hit records to their credit. They were staffed by some of the island’s most in-demand session players – sax player Glen Da Costa and trumpeter Dave Madden included. Based at Harry J’s studio in Kingston and briefly signed to Island Records, Zap Pow were the real deal; a self-contained unit who wrote, arranged, and produced their own material, and gave some truly memorable stage performances during their ten-year lifespan.

They were formed in 1969, by singer/bassist Mikey 'Zap Pow' Williams and guitarist Dwight Pinkney, whose deft use of the tremolo arm had earned him a reputation as one of the island's most exciting new talents. Dwight had formerly played with the Sharks, a Kingston band who'd been invited to play for a month at the Lucayan Beach Hotel in the Bahamas, although their residency was soon extended to three months, and finally made permanent. In fact, the Sharks played at the Lucayan for two years, only returning to Jamaica intermittently. It was during one of their trips home that Dwight wrote 'How Could I Live', which they recorded for producer Coxsone Dodd, and that later became a hit for Dennis Brown. The Sharks also played on hits by the Wailers, Delroy Wilson, Ken Boothe, and the Gaylads during their short, but celebrated stay at Studio One, which lasted just two weeks. Studio recordings were one thing, but the Sharks excelled as a live act, and after returning to Jamaica for good, soon found themselves a slot on the north coast tourist circuit. At first, they played at the Yellow Bird in Montego Bay, but then left for Ocho Rios in 1968, where they eventually disbanded. Rather than go back to Kingston, Dwight chose to stay put and join Winston Turner and the Untouchables, who played at the Hilton Hotel in 'Ochi.' Michael 'Mikey' Williams was their bass player, and six months later, the two of them decided to form their own band. Mikey, who came from St. Ann's, had taken a comic to Dwight's room and pointed out one of the illustrations, which had 'Zap Pow!' written on it. The pair laughed and named their band after it, since they wanted 'to create a splash!'

Danny Mowatt was recruited to play drums, and Dave Madden and Glen Da Costa trumpet and saxophone respectively, although Glen also played flute, as well as clarinet. Dave is from Newcastle; a hamlet nestled in the hills of St. Andrew's near Papine. He first became fascinated with the trumpet at the age of four, after seeing someone play one at a fair. This was just before the '51 Storm, which devastated large parts of Jamaica. Dave's mother made the journey down the mountainside to Papine with him and his sister, but struggled to cope with her children in the absence of their father. Dave was sent to Alpha Boy's School in Kingston; an orphanage run by nuns, and that afforded boys like him with shelter and an education. He joined the school band, and learnt trumpet (from Jo Jo Bennett and Johnny Moore) for four years, until he was about sixteen. He then joined an army military band for another four years, taking classes during the day, and playing band and orchestral music in the evenings.

'It was an extension of what we were doing in Alpha, but you might be also playing with these little bands from outside the military who want a trumpet player, so that's what opened my eyes to the pop music scene', he told me. 'I became advanced in terms of the classics and also pop music, then after those four years, I left to play with Lynn Taitt and the Comets, Lynn Taitt and the Jets, and the Diamonds… There were so many bands I can't even name them.

'After doing that now, I get to realise I couldn't play pop music the way it was at that time, 'cause the Skatalites were so strong, and there were doing things I couldn't, like play by ear. I could read music well enough, but no one was writing any, so that meant I had to learn to play all over again. I remember asking Roland Alphonso, 'You guys make all those records and play some fantastic things, but how do you do it?' He told me it takes constant practice, and asked me how old I was. I was twenty-one at the time, so he said if I practiced for three years, then I'd achieve everything I wanted. I start to practice hard after that. I went to Montego Bay, and had about a year there during 1968-1969, performing in hotels, and that furthered my whole style of playing, because I was working every night. I played with this sax player called Carlton Samuels, who's dead now. Recording was still far away from my mind, but then Tommy McCook saw me playing with Lynn Taitt, and asked me to come play on a session with his group at Federal, so I went down, played what I was supposed to and that gave me the confidence to go to Coxsone now, and visit Studio One. The first song I played on for him was Bob Andy's 'I've Got To Go Back Home'. I walk in there one day with my trumpet, looking for work, Bob Andy said to come into the studio, and then before I know it, the song was a hit! That was how the relationship between Coxsone and myself grew, and then I get together with Cedric Brooks, who I knew from Alpha. We call ourselves 'Im & Dave, and do this tune for Coxsone called 'Money Maker', which became a No.1. We were the only horn players with a hit instrumental at that time, and then from 'Money Maker', we put a little group together called the Mystics. Cedric, he wanted to go into deeper religious things, right? But I was more concerned with understanding what the instrument is all about musically. Cedric, he wanted to change the name of our band from the Mystics, to the Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari, but I say no, and that's when I move onto Zap Pow…'

Dave took the Mystics' theme tune, 'Mystic Mood', with him, and Zap Pow decided to record it. It was the band's debut recording, and an instant hit.

'Glen wasn't with us yet,' continues Dave. 'He came a couple of months after 'Mystic Mood', 'cause we started off with just me on trumpet, then they decided they wanted a sax player and trombone player. He was in the army then, but left soon after he started to play with us.'

'After sitting in with Zap Pow, I made the decision to leave the army then and there!' confirms Glen, who hails from the Jamaican parish of St. Mary's. He was from a large family, and his mother simply couldn't cope with five children. Like Dave, he was sent to Alpha Boys School, and was given gardening work to do before a teacher spotted him hanging off a tree, listening to band rehearsal. Before long, he'd joined them on clarinet before making the switch to saxophone, and enlisting with the army.

'I had only two more years to go, but it didn't matter,' he says. 'I wanted to play real music, dub music, and had played in a number of other groups by then, like Lynn Taitt and the Comets, Los Caballeros, and Sonny Bradshaw. I'd also played in school bands, but Zap Pow was the icing on the cake. That was one of the best groups I had ever been in, they had some very talented musicians, and that's what laid the foundation for me in Jamaican pop music. We had five foundation members, but drummer Max Edwards left pretty early, and we had this other drummer for a while, called Cornel Marshall, who later joined Third World. As a matter of fact, Ras Karbi used to play drums for us as well, during an early stage. Zap Pow was a really integrated group, even though there were so many talented individuals, but then unfortunately it split up.

'Dave and I had started to do sessions long before then, because we were doing things for Treasure Isle, Studio One, and all kinds of other labels. Even when I was in the army, I was playing dubplates for sound-system people like King Edwards, or teaming up with Roland Alphonso and Raymond Harper, who was a really good trumpet player from that time. A lot of us musicians were coming from the big jazz bands, and that was the music I'd been attracted to in the first place, although the first recording I did was a special for a sound-system, playing the clarinet…'

Glen used to arrange all the horn parts on Zap Pow sessions, but says the group was a collective, and had no real leaders.

'No, because people in that group communicated a lot about how we wanted to sound' he says. 'We wanted to be as creative as possible, so it was all there, and we were a complete package. The only thing was, we were always in the studio working on other people's records, because sometimes we'd be doing like an album or two for the day, and that's why I don't even recall the names of them!'

'Mikey was the singer at first,' adds Dave. 'Then in 1975 came Beres [Hammond] and we started going on wicked with songs like 'Rootsman Reggae' for Island, and also 'Last War (Jah Jah Children)'. It was the Island scenario that made us dispirited, and we just decided to call it sort of quits after a while. By then, Glen and I were also playing with Bob Marley, and doing lots of recording sessions, so although we were still in Zap Pow, we were always in demand. We play a lot for Jimmy Cliff as well, who was just as powerful in the music at that time.'

After 'Mystic Mood' had announced their arrival in 1970, Zap Pow followed it with 'This Is Reggae Music' in 1972, and 'Scandal Corner' and 'Sweet Corn Love' during 1974, by which time they'd performed on the same bill as the Wailers and Marvin Gaye at the Carib Theatre, and appeared on more Reggae albums than a barcode. Several different singers, including Mikey, would pass through their ranks until they settled on Beres Hammond in 1975. These included Bunny Rugs, who later joined Third World, and Jacob Miller, who rose to fame as the frontman with Inner Circle. Both were excellent, but with Beres at their helm, Zap Pow became the highest paid studio outfit in Jamaica. Before long, they became synonymous with all the hits flooding out of Harry J's, although they also maintained their own rehearsal facilities at 13a Rollins Road, in-between helping to organise musicians' strikes for better pay, and taking up invitations to play with Jamaica's musical elite. Augmented by Vin Gordon on trombone, the Zap Pow horn section played on many of Bob Marley and the Wailers' best-selling Island recordings, and the admiration was mutual, since several of the Wailers would guest with Zap Pow from time to time, including Earl 'Wya' Lindo and drummer Carlton Barrett.

The fulcrum of Zap Pow however, was Mikey Williams, who played bass, guitar, and drums, in addition to sharing lead vocals. A talented all-rounder, Mikey was also a skilful engineer and producer, and formed his first promotions company, Show-Jam World Festival Company Ltd, in 1974, shortly before Zap Pow signed with Island and recorded their first album, 'Zap Pow Now'. Island released this album in 1975, but then mysteriously withdrew it, according to surviving band members. Happily, it was later reissued as 'Jungle Beat', complete with hits like 'Cry Inflation', 'Rock Your Bones', and the title track, which is an irresistible synthesis of Reggae and funk.

Thanks to a young Bermudan sing-jay called Collie Buddz, Zap Pow's most famous track is now 'Last War (Jah Jah Children)', which the band recorded in 1978, with Beres Hammond again on lead vocals. Distinguished by typically regal horns, a solid Reggae groove, and heartfelt sufferers' lyric, 'Last War' was sampled by Collie Buddz on his 2007 hit 'Come Around' - a Sony release that has topped Reggae charts around the world, and given rise to endless new versions. Its success has brought Zap Pow back into the spotlight after an absence of nearly thirty years, encouraging Reggae fans to re-evaluate their contributions, and Sanctuary to release this long-overdue retrospective.

By the time 'Last War' stormed Jamaica's charts the first time round, Zap Pow had toured the US, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Surinam (where they played at the CARIFESTA), Mexico, Bermuda, and Canada. It was whilst travelling through Canada that rifts began to develop. Soon after their return to Jamaica, Beres Hammond left to pursue a solo career, and Dwight enrolled at the Edna Manley School Of Music in Kingston. He'll soon resurface as a member of the Roots Radics, whilst Beres reinvented himself as 'Mr Soul Of Jamaica' and became one of Jamaica's most popular entertainers, with a string of awards, and hit singles and albums to his credit. It was left to Mikey Williams to continue recording and performing under the name Zap Pow, using assorted pick-up musicians. He sadly died on August 9th 2005 of natural causes, aged just sixty-one, although the remaining key members are still alive, and just as enamoured of music as ever, despite their advancing years. All record albums of classic and original material, drawn from the mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Reggae tradition. Dwight Pinkney can often be seen playing in Kingston nightspots or north coast resorts, whilst Glen Da Costa lives in Ocho Rios, where he teaches music, and is involved with an organisation called Carib Arts. He and Dave Madden continue to back Burning Spear, Toots & The Maytals, and the Wailers on occasion. In addition, Dave often plays with Sly & Robbie's Taxi Gang, and has been producing his own albums since 1983, even pioneering new styles of music he calls 'dance horn' and 'cyber Ska.'

JOHN MASOURI

Last War: The Best Of

U Roy

Considering how much they’ve had to rely on often-vague recollections of events that occurred up to 50 years ago, it’s nothing short of marvellous that Jamaican music historians have managed to piece together as much of the music’s history as they have done to date. For every truth about the growth of reggae, and the incredibly important events in the music’s history, there are several apocryphal versions and even downright lies to weed out before the closest version to fact can be established. For instance, there are several stories that tell how the art of ‘versions’ and dub plates came to be. The one this writer likes to believe (and the one that may, indeed, be closest to the truth) concerns sound system and, later, engineering/mixing legend Osbourne ‘King Tubby’s’ Ruddock. Story goes that electronics wizard Tubbs had been cutting some acetates of long-unavailable Treasure Isle rocksteady gems – for his sometime employer, and T.I. label owner Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid - from the original 2 track mono session tapes, for use on his own sound system that was then known as King Tubby’s Home-Town Hi Fi. Allegedly without realising it, he’d managed to knock out the vocal channel on at least one of these. The ‘mistake’ wasn’t spotted until his selector put the stylus on the acetate ‘in the dance’ and the singing didn’t come in as expected. Rather than being appalled, the crowd was enthralled – as was the sound system’s 27-year-old DJ, who now didn’t have to drop his lyrical science in competition with the singer or group featured on the original record…

This is not the place to read a history of King Tubby's, dubplates and versions, however - although they do play an integral part in our story, so it's essential to provide that bit of background at this point. Our tale concerns the man who was King Tubby's Hi Fi's DJ at this time - a man who had been with Tubbs for nearly two years, having worked previously with sound systems such as Dickie's Dynamic and Sir George The Atomic. A man who was born Ewart Beckford in Kingston in 1942, but who, within only a few months of this 'accidental' occurrence, would come to be known by the reggae music world as, simply, U Roy.

Long before Big Youth felt confident enough about his star status to claim, in an album title, that he had become a 'Reggae Phenomenon', U Roy really was one. Never before him, nor for a long time after him, had any artist been able to simultaneously hold the top three positions on the Jamaican charts with three consecutive singles. Even the later international fame of Bob Marley never afforded that particular 'late great' a comparable level of chart action. And when U Roy came with his first album, the deluxe edition of which you've hopefully bought if you're now reading these notes, it was an event for reggae fans that would have been comparable in rock circles to the release of something like a 'Pet Sounds' or 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Up to the release of 'Version Galore', there really wasn't much of an album market for Jamaican artists. 'Version Galore' changed that situation overnight by selling in the kind of quantities that the three chart-topping 45s that preceded it had done. If the success of 'Wake The Town', 'This Station Rule The Nation' and 'Wear You To The Ball' hadn't already made U Roy the number one artist in Jamaica, this album would (and did!) confirm his star status absolutely.

When it reviewed 'Version Galore' as a new release back in 1971, the UK's 'New Musical Express' praised both the album and its maker, whom they described as a 'Jamaican Jimmy Saville' - to give some perspective for our American readers, this would be akin to describing 'Hugh Roy' (as he was then more often billed) as a 'Caribbean Murray The K'. This, of course is not entirely accurate - you wouldn't really expect geriatric do-gooder Jimmy to start shouting 'Now Then, Now Then' or 'Owzabouttthat, Guys 'n' Gals' over some old Elvis or Cliff records, only to have unprecedented local chart success as a result. But this, in a nutshell, is what U Roy did in Jamaica, and it's what made him arguably the country's biggest local star until the internationally engineered advent of Robert Nesta Marley, Neville Livingston and Winston McIntosh put reggae on the map globally.

Contrary to what has occasionally been implied in the past - right from the time of the original album sleeve note, which inferred that 'All of a sudden Jamaica awoke and U Roy was everywhere' - the primary subject of this 2CD set was not the overnight success you might have believed him to be, had you been resident in Jamaica in 1970 and 1971. Several record producers had already committed studio time to our man - and to several other DJs - before he found his natural recording home at Treasure Isle. Neither Lee Perry nor Bunnie Lee (on 'Earth's Rightful Ruler' and 'King Of The Road' respectively) had really gotten to grips with the evolving U Roy style, and although Keith Hudson had the will, he couldn't quite find the way on 'Dynamic Fashion Way' where U Roy's smooth, jazz-influenced jive talk waged war with a totally incongruous bassline that seemed to belong to a record playing three rooms away. It wasn't until Lloyd 'The Matador' Daley voiced our hero on the gorgeous 'Secretly' rhythm, and released it in 1970 as 'Scandal', that listeners got a true glimpse of where U Roy was coming from, and where he would soon be going to.

During 1969 and early 1970 Tubbs continued to strip Treasure Isle rhythms of their vocals for sound system play and U Roy continued to hone his craft in the dance, chatting and scatting over the vintage Duke Reid grooves in a manner that would have people flocking from all over Kingston to follow King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi. It wasn't too long before people started to require a vinyl preservation of these exciting sounds, Duke Reid perhaps foremostly among them as the owner of the rhythms. When the time came for U Roy to make records featuring the spiels he had been perfecting in a live environment, there was really only one place he was going to go, and one man he was going to go to.

To coincide with the arrival of 1970, Duke Reid released three U Roy singles in fairly quick succession. 'Wake The Town' featured a four-year-old backing track and a cheesy organ overdub by the young 'Wire' Lindo (later to find further fame as a member of the expanded touring Wailers). And the record originally sung over that backing track, Alton Ellis and the Flames' original 'Girl I've Got A Date', was still enough of a crowd-pleaser in its own right to ensure that success was guaranteed for its re-creator. Next up, The Duke and engineer Byron Smith - who would effectively produce as well as engineer all of U Roy's Treasure Isle masters, having already acted in the same capacity on the original versions and instrumental 'next cuts' that fill the second CD of this 'deluxe edition' - dusted down and added a percussion overdub to the rhythm of the Techniques 1967 classic 'Love Is A Gamble' (which is how it was billed on the original Jamaican 45) to create a bed for U Roy to tell the world that 'This Station - Rules The Nation. With Version!' - which, by now, was beginning to be the truth. Both these records topped the charts in Jamdown, the latter taking over the top slot from the former.

By the time all parties were ready to come with 'Wear You To The Ball' - a stupendously exciting creation that was among the first (if not the first) to blend DJ exclamations (including U Roy's vocal trademark 'Chick-A-Bow') and retain some of the vocals from the original record, in this case a Paragons 45 from 1967 - there really was no turning back. Radio, which had tried to ignore the first two singles even though they topped the pops, had to capitulate to 'Ball's' phenomenal appeal. Once they got behind it, the record streaked past 'Town' and 'Nation' to take pole position for weeks, while its predecessors stayed right behind it to lockdown the top three in a manner that had hardly been seen anywhere in the world since the Beatles occupied the entire US Top 5 at the onset of American Beatlemania. U Roy had arrived. And then some…

As a reward for this unprecedented success, U Roy presented his devoted public with the debut album that forms the core of this release. Although, in time-honoured, typically Jamaican fashion the artist was confusingly miscredited as 'I-Roy' (see the booklet front!) there was no confusion over who was actually featured on the record. Reid shrewdly made sure that only one of the three preceding singles was included, in order to ensure that 'Town' and 'Nation' both continued to sell through. So other than 'Wear You To The Ball', 'Version Galore' contained all-new tracks to delight U Roy's ever-growing worldwide fan club. (On a personal note, I remember my own high excitement at getting a copy of the UK release, and like many reggae collectors who go back to that era I could still to this day sing and/or chat you almost every single word of the album if pressed to do so…). These ranged from the out-and-out ska of the Silvertones' take on Brook Benton's 'My True Confession' to what was then a relatively new Treasure Isle rhythm, the Tennors 1970 festival entry 'Hopeful Village' (retitled as 'Hot Pop'). And just about every track was and remains a true genre classic, from 'Rock Away' (based on the Melodians' 'You Don't Need Me' and also released later as a single) to the sublime makeover of Phyllis Dillon's gorgeous 'Don't Stay Away'. Listening to it from beginning to end is still the only way to hear it properly - As a younger reggae fan with only a few albums in my collection I've been down that road literally hundreds of times, and still prefer to hear it like that if I've got half-an-hour to spare. Here's your chance, folks - my advice to you is grab it with both hands…

For the next year or so, and particularly in the wake of the Ja. release of this landmark album, everything U Roy touched turned to solid musical gold. When released as a single, 'Version Galore' really caught the mood of the times. 'Version Galore, You Can Hear Them By The Score' was his take on the then-current situation. And he was right. Once the U Roy phenomenon shook the Jamaican music industry to its core, everyone wanted a piece of the man's action and thus every other producer on the island went off in search of his own U Roy clone. Coxsone Dodd resurrected his sound system selector King Sporty, who'd already appeared on some ska-era recordings, and also cut early sides by Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace and Dennis Alcapone. Joe Gibbs cut both Charlie Ace and Johnny Lover - both of whom came closer than most in actually sounding like U Roy.

Meanwhile out in Montego Bay, producer Harry Mudie dusted off his old Studio One-recorded, early reggae classics by the Ebony Sisters and Dennis Walks and brought in the young Roy Reid to chat over them, releasing the end product under the name of I. Roy. A little later on, courtesy of producers such as Rupie Edwards and the ever-opportunistic Bunnie Lee, we eventually got to meet a U Roy Junior, a pretty good banton who actually sounded nothing like his 'Senior' equivalent. And all the while, out of sight of the artists and producers who had created them, various UK labels were releasing tracks that had previously appeared as JA-pressed blanks with a credit going to U Roy - even if the DJ involved couldn't have sounded less like the man if he'd had a sex change prior to the session! Thus the aforementioned King Sporty appeared on the Palmer brothers' Punch label as 'Hugh Roy', while Coxsone's then-UK representative Junior Lincoln unrepentantly issued both Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace and early Dennis Alcapone sides as 'Mad Roy', regardless of the fact that neither DJ sounded even remotely like Mr. Beckford. (The original owners of Trojan were themselves not above a bit of this duplicitousness. When U Roy made his first triumphant visit to the UK in 1972, sharing a bill with Max Romeo and Roy Shirley, the company didn't have any new U Roy titles on schedule, so they simply retitled Dennis Alcapone's current Ja. Duke Reid release 'No. One Station' as 'Rock To The Beat' and credited it to the man-of-the moment. You might think this odd, especially as by that time Dennis was firmly established in the upper echelon of Jamaican DJ music and his voice was recognisable enough to be 'Insured For One Million Dollars', as a contemporaneous Duke Reid release aptly put it. But such was the public clamour for any new U Roy records at the height of U Roy mania that punters didn't care if they were getting Dennis Alcapone or Dennis The Menace as long as it had his name on the label.

While this was going on, the real Ewart Beckford was still making his own great records for Duke Reid, on what seems to have been something of an exclusive basis - at least, up until mid 1971. In a musical climate where there is still more regard for toilet paper than there is for a recording contract, U Roy seems to have had some sort of yearlong agreement with Reid that he would cut for no one other than the ex-sound system man. He seems also to have remained 'true true' to his word for that period by cutting more than 25 sides in total. And, pray tell, why would he have wanted to go anywhere else at this time? Outside of Coxson Dodd (over whose sound he briefly chatted in the late 1960s, on a brief sojourn from Tubbs' Hometown Hi Fi, but for whom he's never recorded - or, if he has, he's never had anything commercially released on a Coxson label) no other producer had a constant supply the kind of classic Rocksteady rhythms that he could find in the Treasure Isle tape vault. And he was ready, willing and able to make a fresh classic out of almost every one that he was given to chat over. DJ records simply don't get better than the ones that Beckford and Treasure Isle studio engineer Byron 'Smitty' Smith were making upstairs while Reid was all the while flogging crates of Red Stripe and Guinness downstairs, to punters who would undoubtedly have been dancing their nights away to those self-same records within a few weeks of the recording session. Reid - who would seldom venture into his studio other than to praise or pan whatever was going on - kept an ever-alert ear to what was being put down on tape via a huge speaker that fed the sessions through to the liquor store. If something pleased him especially, he would think nothing of letting off a few rounds of gunfire into the ceiling of his store, from two huge pistols he had retained from his days in the Jamaican police force. That ceiling (and even the floor above it) must have resembled a choice bit of Jarlsberg or Emmental during the U Roy era.

Easy to organise, cheap to run, with the majority of musicians and vocalists already on tape for some years, the only real participants in a U Roy session would generally be engineer Smith and U Roy himself. The speed of the sessions that produced U Roy's catalogue of Treasure Isle classics must have delighted the financially-cautious Duke Reid, as there was usually no dealing with ill-prepared vocalists or off-key musicians for the engineer to worry about! They were not always as spontaneous as you might think from listening to U Roy's seemingly off-the-cuff interjections, however. The inferior outtakes from session reels that came to light in the early 1990s show that he would come to sessions with a prepared lyrical concept that he would hone across no more than a handful of takes - usually, this writer would guess, until the Duke shot the ceiling a few times to indicate that Beckford and Smith had got something he could shift downstairs in quantity. But even so, the combination of a tried-and-trusted, classic Rocksteady rhythm and the excited (and exciting!) DJ banter was enough to put anyone who wanted to be in the dance right there in the middle of the floor, and at the height of an evening's excitement, even if they lived miles away from any kind of social activity.

The Duke Reid and Treasure Isle singles that came in the wake of the 'Version Galore' album proved, if anything, to be even better than those taken from or preceding it. Two sides cut with Hopeton Lewis ('Tom Drunk' - essentially a revival of the Shields' 1957 doo-wop classic 'You Cheated' - and 'Drive Her Home', which was an actual revival of an early 60s Clovers tune 'Drive It Home') sounded more like duets than anything else, as did the pairing (separated by nearly 4 years!) of U Roy and Alton Ellis on 'Ain't That Loving You', arguably our man's last true Treasure Isle classic. And even though it's not a favourite of most fans, this writer's always held a high regard for 1972's 'Peace And Love' for both its sock-over-the-speaker sound quality and, especially, the almost rabid vocal delivery of our man at the mic.

For all these and other delights awaiting you here, there's none that quite matches the splendour of 'I'm Flashing My Whip', which, in less than three minutes, manages to encapsulate everything that's great about the finest DJ recordings of reggae's golden era. The gorgeous surge of the Paragons 'Only A Smile' is, like 'Wear You To The Ball', tailor made to elicit the best exhortations that U Roy has to offer and he pulls out every trick in his jive talking book to honour the rolling slow ska-style rhythm. A massive sound system record - England's Lloydie Coxsone, for one, was still playing it regularly a year after it had dropped off the Ja. charts - it's so full of delights from beginning to end that it's pointless detailing each and every one of them here when you could be left to savour their pleasures for yourselves. Surely, though, the crowning moment in this and all DJ records comes during the midway instrumental break when our man scats 'Chick A Bow' style as an extra accompaniment to the mighty Tommy McCook-led horn section. Truly, it does not get better than this. Your writer could listen to it every day for the rest of his life and still find new things to enjoy in every play…

U Roy may not have invented Jamaican DJ music, but he certainly invented the direction it would forever take from the moment he stood before the mic in the Treasure Isle Recording Studio and Liquor Store in the heart of the teeming Kingston ghetto, to 'Wake The Town And Tell The People - 'Bout This Musical Di-isc Coming Your Way (ay-ay-ay-ay…)'. When he struck out on his own in late 1971, Reid and Smith immediately poached Dennis Alcapone from Coxsone and went on to create another series of Treasure Isle DJ classics between 1971 and 1974 - primarily on rocksteady rhythms that had not already been voiced by U Roy- which made Alcapone almost as big a name as the man who he'd replaced down on Bond Street.

U Roy himself shortly began to hone his delivery to one more suited to the choppier reggae rhythms of the day, reaching a second creative apex on self-produced classics like 'Nannyscank' (in partnership with Dynamic Sounds studio engineer Karl Pitterson), 'Love I Bring' (on a rub of Bunnie Lee's Uniques-sung 'Ain't Too Proud To Beg' rhythm) and 'The Other Half' (coming off Dennis Brown's 'What About The Half' for Phil Pratt), the latter two for his own labels, Mego-Ann and Del-Ma, respectively. As the 70s wore on, and the new style of DJing personified by Big Youth became the order of the day, U Roy recorded less frequently than in his heyday. The results were still greeted with great acclaim by his fans - particularly a short series of singles for Bunnie Lee that rode the great 'flying cymbal' rhythms of the mid 70s, and that were mixed for maximum effect by U Roy's old sound system mentor King Tubby's. He also made a 'slight return' to Bond Street, where Byron Smith's successor Carlton Hamil voiced him on some more recent T.I. rhythms, including Errol Dunkley's 'Where Must I Go' and a version of 'Honey Come Back' (neither of which are included here as they don't really belong stylistically with our other tracks). And when reggae started to go overground around 1976-77, the man's Prince Tony-produced 'Dread In A Babylon' album was pounced on enthusiastically by the same rock press that, predictably, had all but ignored his seminal sequence of Treasure Isle recordings in their rush to heap praise on the latest Hawkwind or Groundhogs album.

Having split his time between Jamaica and England, on and off, from 1972 to 1975, Daddy U Roy returned home in the latter half of the 70s to run his own successful sound system, Stur-Gav Hi Fi and to introduce the world to a fine new crop of DJ's who came up in his wake. (These included the likes of Ranking Joe, Brigadier Jerry and Josey Wales). Eventually the man relocated to the U.S.A sometime around the middle of the 1980s, and nowadays calls Los Angeles his hometown. Since then he's recorded with increasingly less regularity as the years have gone by - although his occasional 1990s albums, cut for and with England's Mad Professor, show that he's still as hot as he's ever been, as do his occasional appearances at numerous Reggae Revival shows around the globe. Although his recordings have never overplayed the Rasta card, he's still a devout exponent of the doctrines of H.I.M Haile Selassie ('a subject that he don't joke about', according to the unusually informative sleevenote on the back of the original vinyl release of the VG album), and over the years his greying beard and locks have become as striking a feature of his on-stage persona as the multi-coloured bowler hats and jackets he sports on stage to great visual effect.

Never even remotely considered a novelty act, U Roy nowadays commands a rightful respect as one of reggae's elder statesmen and a true genre innovator. Not only would Jamaican DJ music be considerably less significant without his contributions, neither would American rap, as many who operate in that field are quick to acknowledge.

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By the latter half of the seventies, disco-mixes – extended versions of tracks - were de rigueur throughout popular music. The trend was particularly suited to Reggae and there was no greater exponent of the disco-mix format than Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.